Shanahan and at least one Seahawk thought Fed Ex field looked fine before game

1/7/13

I live in DC, so I saw quite a few Redskins games this season and I definitely did not notice the field being in poor condition before yesterday’s contest with the Seahawks. But yesterday it looked horrible — grass was flying, guys were slipping and getting stuck.

Apparently, Fed Ex field is made up of Bermuda grass and there was some talk of having it re-sodded. I’m actually surprised that the Redskins play on grass because my understanding is that grass may be a bit more upkeep and it’s well known that Skins owner Dan Snyder is a fan of cutting corners.

Coach Mike Shanahan was asked about the re-sodding and he had this to say:

“Sometimes resodding is good. I’ve had resodding that’s worked quite well. I’ve been on some resods that were very, very poor. We rushed for a lot of yards last week and the surface was good enough to not slip, so that’s a pretty good sign. I know it doesn’t look that good but relative to the footwork, I didn’t think it was bad at all from a running back standpoint as well as the wide receivers. I didn’t see people slipping and so that’s a good sign. Anyway, both teams have to play on the field.”

This interview was just a few days before the game and obviously by then the field was quite slippery as cleats kept getting stuck in the grass. In fact, Seahawks Chris Clemons may have torn his ACL when his cleat got stuck.

After reading these comments, I remembered that Seahawks Safety Kam Chancellor had tweeted about Fed Ex Field when the Seahawks got to the stadium on Saturday. I’ve heard lots of players say they enjoy grass much better and look forward to playing on it, but Chancellor went a step further and also said the field looked great.