PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward believes the Acrisure Stadium playing surface had something to do with Miles Killebrew’s significant knee injury.
Killebrew, who is likely going to miss most if not all of the remaining season, was injured on a kickoff return. Heyward blames that on the Acrisure Stadium playing surface, which he and many others believed was rough.
Killebrew, who was running towards the play on the opposite side of the field, had his right leg give way as he tried to traverse the field.
“Honestly, it was (expletive),” Heyward said. “I lost one of my teammates and that makes me sad about it.”
Heyward says everyone prefers grass, but the grass they played on Sunday was not up to the usual standards of the NFL and needs to be looked at in the future.
Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said the field was ‘borderline unplayable.’
“Thankfully Bos [Chris Boswell] took care of those kicks before the field got borderline unplayable,” Rodgers said
Kicker Chris Boswell also slipped on the surface while attempting a kick, and while he was not injured, there was worry he could have gone down with an injury after getting his foot caught in the ground.
The Pittsburgh Panthers play on the same field. That means that from the Steelers’ first preseason game until that point, seven games had been played on the field.
It was all torn up as a result of that, but the Steelers usually get longevity out of the grass. They did not this time. Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger thinks the solution is for Pitt to build their own stadium.
“I don’t think Pitt should play there anymore,” Roethlisberger said on Footbahlin. “I understand there are high school games, concerts, and that, but my thing is, and I’m saying this for Pitt’s sake as well, I firmly believe Pitt should put a 35,000 person stadium in Oakland and pack that thing.”
It’s an idea that the university has thrown around for years, but it is unlikely given the space constraints in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh where the college is located.
Instead, the Steelers and Pitt will certainly continue sharing the facility, and have to figure out why they did not get the usual longevity out of the grass they usually do.
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