Panthers
Aaron Rodgers has a complaint about Tampa, and it is not the scoreboard. After the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Buccaneers 26-19 in overtime on Sunday, October 18, the quarterback called the Raymond James Stadium field "one of the worst surfaces in the league" (Pro Football Talk, JoeBucsFan).
Key facts
- Aaron Rodgers said after the Steelers' 26-19 overtime win in Tampa on October 18 that the field is one of the worst surfaces in the league (Pro Football Talk, October 18).
- Rodgers said he has been hurt twice on this field and tied his complaint to player safety (Pro Football Talk, JoeBucsFan, October 18 and 19).
- Sports Illustrated reports that the Buccaneers' field received an F- in the anonymous NFLPA player survey, tied for the lowest grade in the NFL (Sports Illustrated, October 18).
- Neither Pro Football Talk nor Sports Illustrated reports a response from the Buccaneers or the NFL (October 18).
- The Buccaneers are 1-5 and play at the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, October 25, at 1:00 PM ET, 18:00 CET (Buccaneers.com).
What Rodgers said
Rodgers made it a safety issue. He said "we're talking about player safety" and that he does not think the surface is very safe (JoeBucsFan). He also said he has been hurt twice on this field, without naming the injuries (Sports Illustrated, JoeBucsFan).
Pro Football Talk notes that Rodgers made a similar point last year about Pittsburgh's own home field, which he called "borderline unplayable". That one has since been addressed, according to PFT.
The NFLPA grade
Sports Illustrated adds a number to the story. In the anonymous NFLPA player survey, which grades every NFL field, the Buccaneers' field received an F-, tied for the lowest grade in the league (Sports Illustrated). The article does not give the year of the survey. We could not find a second outlet reporting the grade, so treat it as Sports Illustrated's reporting.
For readers outside the US: the NFLPA is the players' union, and the survey asks players to rate the field they play on at every stadium. It measures what players say, not an engineering test of the surface.
Surface type
Outlets describe the field in different ways. Rodgers and JoeBucsFan talk about "turf", while Pro Football Talk calls it grass. Because of that we use "field" and "surface" here and make no claim about the material.
No response yet
As of Monday, October 19, neither Pro Football Talk nor Sports Illustrated reports a reaction from the Buccaneers or the NFL (October 18). We will update this article if one comes.
The game behind it
Tampa Bay led 16-3 entering the fourth quarter, and the Steelers won in overtime on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Germie Bernard (Buccaneers.com, ESPN). Our Week 6 recap has the full story. Tampa Bay is now 1-5.
What comes next
The Bucs travel to face the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, October 25, at 1:00 PM ET, 18:00 CET (the Netherlands and the rest of Europe switch to winter time that morning). The schedule has the rest of the year.
Rodgers won the game, so nobody can call his complaint sour grapes. A reported F- from the players and a quarterback who says he got hurt twice are facts that deserve an answer from the Bucs, and so far there has been none.
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