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Prior to Super Bowl LVII, the NFL was pretty eager to shine a spotlight on George Toma, the 94-year-old groundskeeper known as “The Sodfather” who had overseen the turf at every single iteration of The Big Game since its inception.
Unfortunately, The Sodfather ended up making headlines for all of the long reasons thanks to a contest that was marred a bit by the turf that was torn up by the many players who had trouble gaining adequate traction on a field that reportedly set the league back a grand total of $800,000.
While both teams were theoretically at an equal disadvantage, that didn’t prevent plenty of players and fans from voicing their displeasure with the subpar conditions, and we were treated to a blame game for the ages in the wake of the contest as various parties attempted to pass the buck.
Oklahoma State (which grew the experimental turf that was used in Super Bowl LVII) pointed the finger at the NFL, while The Sodfather asserted field director Ed Mangan botched the preparations and created conditions that allow the field to rot.
According to Pro Football Talk, the league itself is apparently still entrenched in the spin zone, as the outlet reports it has trotted out a scapegoat to owners who inquired about what really transpired by suggesting the players were at fault for not wearing the proper cleats.
PFT correctly notes some members of the Eagles decided to change their cleats at halftime in the hopes of addressing the issue, although they still visibly struggled to grapple with the grass on multiple plays en route to their 38-35 loss at the hands of the Chiefs.
At this point, you’d think the NFL would just admit it screwed up and try to put the entire thing in the past, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case.