The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cleveland Browns 23-9 at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday, but their home field did them no favors.
The field conditions rapidly deteriorated throughout the game, even causing Steelers kicker Chris Boswell to lose his footing during a long field-goal attempt at one point. After the game, Aaron Rodgers called the field “borderline unplayable.”
With Pittsburgh on the road this week against the Cincinnati Bengals, the turf is being replaced and will be ready for them when they return. However, the poor field conditions have drawn criticism from other players and coaches besides Rodgers, including former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Roethlisberger, who spent his entire NFL career with Pittsburgh and played all of his home games at Acrisure Stadium, called out the stadium’s field conditions on a recent episode of his “Footbahlin” podcast and proposed a potentially radical solution.
“You can’t have a professional football team — not just the Steelers, but their opponents — play on a surface like that,” Roethlisberger said. “Because you’re paying them a lot of money, and if people get hurt, it’s not a good thing.”
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“I don’t think Pitt should play there anymore,” added the two-time Super Bowl champ, saying the University of Pittsburgh should build a new 35,000-person stadium in the city’s Oakland neighborhood rather than playing its home games at a half-empty Acrisure Stadium.
Relocating the Panthers’ home games closer to campus would reduce the wear and tear on Acrisure Stadium’s field and help preserve it for the Steelers. It would also be a better experience for Pitt’s players and fans.
While building a new football stadium for Pitt would be expensive and time-consuming, it could be a good long-term solution for Acrisure Stadium and improve the quality of the NFL product there.
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