Patriots players seemed to handle the team’s turf much better on Sunday than they did during their Week 1 loss to the Chiefs, but apparently it doesn’t mean that all is well when it comes to the club’s new playing surface.
According to ProFootballTalk.com, the NFL Player’s Association doesn’t like what the team replaced it with, and have concerns over the surface hardness, which apparently came back too low.
“Player Health and Safety remains a top priority of the NFLPA and we sent our field expert to Gillette Stadium to evaluate the newly installed FieldTurf,” the NFLPA said in a statement via PFT. “The Gmax numbers that reflect surface hardness came back extremely low, indicating a very soft field; however, the testing results passed the NFL Mandatory Practices for field surface testing.”
In the statement to PFT, the NFLPA said they’re encouraging players to consult with equipment managers to ensure they’re “not wearing cleats that will penetrate too deep into the surface, which would increase the risk of lower extremity injuries”. They also reportedly plan on continuing to monitor field testing for safety and performance.
Either way, it sounds like the surface the Patriots opened the season with wasn’t any better, with the website reporting that the NFLPA had concerns about that one as well.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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