BroBible
Field conditions at Soldier Field are a major concern as the Chicago Bears prepare to host their first game of the 2025 NFL season. The new grass has only been in place for less than seven business days.
It will be a storyline to watch during Monday Night Football!
Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell does not seem concerned with the sod. However, this exact situation proved to be an issue prior to the start of last NFL season in the Windy City…
The aging home of the Chicago Bears hosted five consecutive concerts over Labor Day weekend. All five shows featured a seated section and a pit section on the actual grass field at Soldier Field.
Oasis played on Thursday. My Chemical Romance on Friday. The Lumineers on Saturday. System of a Down on Sunday. Avenged Sevenfold on Labor Day.
As a result of the wear and tear, the Chicago Park District and ASM Global decided to replace the grass. Crews spent the last seven days laying fresh sod at Soldier Field.
New sod typically takes anywhere between 10 and 14 days to take root. The process can be expedited with proper sun, water and maintenance but the field will not fully settle for at least two weeks.
This specific turnaround at Soldier Field will be about five days. You can see the difference between the actual playing surface and the sideline in these aerial photos from WGNTV-9:
Kevin O’Connell is choosing not to focus on problems that could arise. Both teams are dealing with the same conditions.
“This is professional football so our anticipation is the surface is going to be good enough to play on,” he said. “But I would say this, at some point, the guys in purple and white aren’t going to be the only ones playing on the surface so we’ve gotta do our best to establish, through a lot of different people, once we’ve arrived, once we’ve had a chance to step foot, gotta have our players prepared to play on whatever the surface is.”
Fair enough! But it could be a real problem.
Here’s the thing. Even if the turf is deemed “ready” or “safe” for play, it is still a brand-new field.
You can see the individual cracks where the different rolls of sod came together to form the 57,600-square-foot playing surface.
That is not what a NFL field should look like for Week 1. It should be in pristine condition.
And, if that video is not concerning enough, there is a history with this exact scenario at Soldier Field in Chicago that does not bode well for Monday night.
The Bears played its first preseason game of 2024 on a brand-new field after back-to-back Metallica concerts. The sod was laid less than a week before kickoff and players were not happy.
*“I didn’t like it at all, really,” said left guard Teven...
