Steelers Now
Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said the problems with the playing surface at Acrisure Stadium date from beyond Sunday’s debacle against the Cleveland Browns, when Aaron Rodgers called the conditions “borderline unplayable,” Chris Boswell slipped on a field goal and Cam Heyward blamed the poor grass conditions for an injury to Miles Killebrew.
“There’s been issues with it before,” Roethlisberger said during this week’s episode of his Footbahlin’ podcast. “Players have talked about it before. We’ve all been out there when it’s just like a sand base. It just gives out so easy. …
“You can’t have a professional football team, not just the Steelers but the opponents, play on a surface like that. Because you’re paying them a lot of money and if people get hurt, it’s not a good thing. …
“Somehow, some way, they’ve got to figure out how to separate those things and make that field better, because you can’t put that product out there for the best kicker in the game to miss field goals because his whole foot goes out. … What if that was a game-winning field goal and Bos slips?”
The problem is real, there’s no question about that. As far as a solution, Roethlisberger has a bold one: Get the Pitt Panthers out of Acrisure Stadium.
“The only thing I can think of, and I’ve been saying this for a while: I don’t think Pitt should play there anymore,” Roethlisberger said. “I understand there are high school games, concerts, and that, but my thing is, and I’m saying this for multiple reasons, for Pitt’s sake as well, I firmly believe that Pitt should put like a 35,000 person stadium up in Oakland and pack that thing, because when you’ve got 65,000 or 70,000 (seats) in Acrisure, and it’s only half full, what’s that look like?”
There are many problems with Roethlisberger’s plan, most notably that Pitt, like the Steelers also has a lease with the Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, the owner of the stadium — which Roethlisberger acknowledged.
“I know it was probably part of the deal, the taxpayers’ dollars when they built the stadium when it was Heinz Field. It was like OK, we’re going to do this, part of the deal was both teams are going to play here,” Roethlisberger said.
Pitt can’t be made to leave. And as far as wanting to, well, the Panthers’ fanbase has long sought a return to football being played in Oakland, but there are scant few places left in the rapidly developing area that could plausibly fit a football stadium, and traffic is already a major issue, even for basketball games.
That would be a better solution for everyone, but unless Roethlisberger has a source of funding that goes well beyond even his $267 million in career earnings, it isn’t particularly likely to come to pass.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Ben Roethlisberger Has Fix for Acrisure Stadium Turf: Kick Out Pitt
