As the Giants and Packers prepare to play at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, there is one concern over the playing surface.
As a source explained it to PFT, there is a problem with the seams on the artificial turf pitch. There are “deep dips” in some areas of the seams connecting the fake grass strips. The Vikings defense suffered an injury last week Louis Cini A seam in the same field occurred near one.
The source said it was a “bad surface”.
However, the test is not bad enough to fail. The NFL Players Association admits “there’s a crease with worrisome numbers,” but the field has officially “passed” the joint NFL-NFLPA pre-game review.
The NFL did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
It is not clear what would have happened if the playing surface had failed. Step one, presumably, is to try to fix it. The second step would have been to not play the game if it couldn’t be fixed.
That’s good luck. At a time when the league’s international appeal has the commissioner Talks openly about a four-team division in EuropeSuddenly pulling the plug on Green Bay’s first game in England would have let all the air out. 99 balloons.
Beyond the disaster, canceled or delayed regular-season games in London could wreak havoc with the idea of sending home an entire stadium of English fans because of the much-hyped, state-of-the-art, two-sport stadium. An unacceptable playing field could set back efforts to grow the sport beyond US borders for years.
Today’s game at Tottenham Hotspur will be the last game of the year. In three weeks, the Broncos and Jaguars play at Wembley, and the final European game in 2022 will be played in Germany. It will be interesting to see if playing at Tottenham Hotspur in 2023 is any better.
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