One of the most under-appreciated groups in the NFL is the grounds crew. Each and every week, they are tasked with perfectly manicuring the field and getting it ready for play.
A minor mistake can completely change the outcome of an entire game. Take Super Bowl LVII, for example. Players were slipping left and right throughout the game because of it was significantly over-watered.
Fortunately, a small error by the New York Jets grounds crew on Sunday did not factor into playing conditions. The grass wasn’t wet. There weren’t any holes. Nothing like that!
Even though there were no functional issues with the field, there was a glaring cosmetic issue.
New York went with its standard all-green end zones for its game against New England. The word ‘Jets’ is written in all-caps, in italics, with white paint.
At some point during the process, whomever was tasked with the white paint might have stepped where he or she was not supposed to step. Actually, not “might have stepped.” He or she did step where he or she was not supposed to step!
How do we know?
There was a large amount of white footprints all over the end zone. The all-green paint was ruint by at least 50 white outlines of someone (or multiple people’s) shoes before either team took the field.
It appears as though there was the same problem with the midfield logo as well.
However, fault may land entirely on the grounds crew.
Its choice of white paint may have had something to do with the sloppy end zone, because it was smudged even worse as warmups got under way. Some of the footprints even reached the field of play. The end zones at MetLife Stadium were a mess.
Oops! There are much worse problems to have, but the grounds crew did not have its ‘A game’ this weekend. Was it their fault or does the blame lie with the paint?!