NATURAL GRASS STARS ON THE PATH TO SUPER BOWL LVII CARE MONTH
By Suz Trusty
As January 2023 drew to a close and February 12 approached, natural grass was in the spotlight. Tis year, both NFL Conference Championship games AND the Super Bowl were played on natural grass fields. What a great opportunity to spread the message of #KeepItREAL!
Prepping for Super Bowl LVII The Path to Super Bowl LVII
Teams of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC), earn their way to the top through regular season and playoff games. Te two top contenders clashed in the NFL Conference Championship games, played on January 29, 2023. In the AFC, the Cincinnati Bengals faced off against the Kansas City Chiefs on the Chiefs home field. In the NFC, the San Francisco 49ers challenged the Philadelphia Eagles on the Eagles home field. Both of these games were played on natural grass fields.
Photos of the NFL Conference Championship game fields were popping up everywhere as Tweets and Facebook postings were liked and shared across the vast network of social media. And many of those messages shared the hashtag #KeepItREAL. Radio and TV sports commentators, sports writers, and even multiple levels of general news media personnel joined in. Football fans, even those not cheering for the four competing teams followed the reports.
And, while the players, and especially the quarterbacks, were the stars in the spotlight, the natural grass fields that would be hosting the action shared in the coverage. Football fans across the U.S. and around the world were hearing the story of #KeepItREAL. Te photos of these incredibly great, game-ready fields came from the Twitter tweets and retweets. Hats off to Travis Hogan, Head Groundskeeper for the Kansas City Chiefs, and Tony Leonard, Vice President of Grounds for the Philadelphia Eagles, and their crews!
Both the Chiefs and the Eagles clinched their Conference titles, earning the right to meet in Super Bowl LVII on February 12, 2023, in Glendale, Arizona, on the natural grass field of State Farm Stadium, home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. Andy Levy, Director of Fields for the Cardinals, and his crew have done a masterful job of navigating the nuances of managing natural grass growing on a steel and concrete tray that rolls into and out of the stadium.
While the NFL moves onsite in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, preparations have been ongoing for well over a year, including the selection, planting, and nurturing of the natural grass that forms the stage for it all. Grown for the 2023 Super Bowl by TPI member West Coast Turf/ Western Sod, the new sod is harvested, transported, and installed. Ten game day prepping unfolds, orchestrated by NFL Field Director Ed Mangan and the legendary George Toma who, at 94, has fine-tuned the playing field for every Super Bowl. As Mangan states, the process is “a collaboration of our staff and the stadium staff to present the field to the world on Super Bowl Sunday.”
Media coverage is intense from that point forward. As TV station Fox10 Phoenix (
fox10phoenix.com/news) reported during an on-field interview with Mangan on January 31, 2023, “Super Bowl LVII is just 12 days away and today, we're getting a first-hand look at one of the most important parts of the game – the turf at State Farm Stadium.” And, the crew is working around the clock to ensure it is “ready to perform at the highest level come game day.” And, to close the interview, “All eyes will be on the grass, after all, it is one of the most critical parts of the game.” Te field photo here is a screenshot captured from that interview.
Suz Trusty is co-editor of Turf News. 42 TPI Turf News March/April 2023
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