The Green Bay Packers’ Week 1 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles already feels like it was weeks ago, and that’s just not just because we’re in denial about how much it derailed the next month and a half. And while Jordan Love’s knee injury is more of a product of getting rolled up on, the field condition certainly didn’t help.
Players on both teams were slipping and sliding all over the field basically from the opening kickoff, and guys on both sides talked after the game about the type of cleat adjustments they were forced to make at halftime. The NFL’s international games have gained something of a bad reputation for the type of field they’re played on, and the conditions at Corinthians Arena may have been the worst yet.
Especially given how the game ended, the field condition was a hot topic of conversation immediately afterwards and has continued making headlines even as the calendar flips to Week 2.
Earlier this week, Kenny Clark went on ‘Clubhouse Live’ to give his take, which was almost certainly what you expect it to be.
Kenny Clark has nothing good to say about Brazil’s field conditions for Packers-Eagles
“It was trash, man,” Clark said in response to a fan question about the turf. “I’ve played in snow, I’ve played in rain, and I’ve never played on a surface like that. There was like, clay coming out of the ground. You had holes in the ground. It was a tough surface to play on. But I can see how soccer players play on it, because you can slide pretty far.”
That more-or-less echoes the opinions of literally every single player and coach who was at the game last Friday night. Matt LaFleur wouldn’t take the bait when asked about the conditions in his postgame presser, but he was one-wording any question lobbed his way, so it’s not like that means a whole lot.
But now it’s settled: all those clips of Packers (and Eagles, I guess) sliding around the field were not an over-exaggeration. The field truly was, to paraphrase a Pro Bowler, trash. It seems like “a decent playing surface” would be pretty high up the list of must-haves for an NFL game, but apparently not.
Stay tuned for the next special Packers game, when they literally play on the paved street in front of your house.
Be the first to comment