
Goodell: NFL looking into field conditions where RG3 was hurt
DENVER -- After Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III tore knee ligaments last week, there was an outcry for something to be done about the playing surface at FedEx Field -- a surface that Seahawks coach Pete Carroll called "horrible."
Well, something just might.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, here for the AFC divisional playoff game between the Ravens and Broncos, said the league is investigating the situation. Or, as he put it, "is going to evaluate" the surface at FedEx Field to determine what to do next.
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"Interestingly enough," said Goodell, "we had no complaints on the field for the Dallas game [the previous weekend]. And so what we have to do is think through that a little bit and see what happened between there and [Dallas]. Our staff is looking at that to determine if a field should be required to be re-sodded -- even between the numbers, or between the hash marks, particularly in these kinds of climates."
RG3 was hurt late in last weekend's loss to Seattle when he reached for a low snap and his injured right knee buckled. He had been hurt earlier in the game, aggravating a knee that was first sprained when the Redskins beat Baltimore at FedEx Field in early December.
As Goodell explained Saturday morning to a group of Denver season-ticket holders, climates sometime determine the quality of fields -- with clubs in the Northeast unable to grow grass in fall and early winter while teams in, say, Miami or Tampa Bay have no problems. That's why he mentioned re-sodding.
"A lot of teams do it," he said. "It depends on the climate, the number of events and if one of those events had crummy weather [if] the field could be ruined from then on. But we've had great success with [re-sodding], though it depends on the thickness of the sod. The thicker the sod, the more it goes down and the better it is."
I don't know about that. What I do know is something should be done to correct a deplorable situation. If I'm the NFL, I'd want to make sure what happened to RG3 doesn't happen again.









