Commentary
Delicate turf at Heinz Field becoming signature quirk for the Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t as dependent on running the football these days, which is probably a good thing.
Who wants to see three yards and a cloud of sand?
The delicate turf at the team’s home field not only remains an issue, it seems to become a bigger topic every week.
It’s becoming a signature quirk. Candlestick Park had its gusting winds, Denver has its thin air and now Pittsburgh has scientifically-engineered grass that curls up more than a cheap toupee.
Kicker Kris Brown left the Steelers in part because he was spooked by the field.
He opted for a team that plays indoors.
Fans who said, “Anybody would be better than Brown” got Todd Peterson and a valuable lesson about being careful when wishing for something.
It’s not even a home-field advantage because the conditions are as miserable for the home team as they are for the visitors.
If anything, the visiting kicker has a better mindset because he knows he only has to spend one week confronting the unsure footing and swirling winds.
There isn’t anything that can be done about the winds. But the turf? Maybe it’s a case of modern thinking gone awry. (Cue the music for one of those annoying “Things aren’t like they used to be” stories).
Back in the days when men like Tom (The Bomb) Tracy ran the football, the Steelers played at Forbes Field.
That was where the Pirates played and the grass field held up under both seasons through typical Pittsburgh weather.
They didn’t have sand underneath and they didn’t import rolls of greenhouse-grown sod from other parts of the country. They planted grass, watered it, mowed it and they played on in about 90 times from April to December.
It was the same thing at Pitt Stadium where – get ready now – the Panthers and Steelers sometimes played on the same weekend. Yet the grass lived.
The Steelers field was engineered for superior drainage with a heating element underneath.
You pay a steep price for eliminating the puddles and frozen turf.
By trying to design a surface that’s perfect in bad weather, they’ve created one that’s terrible in favorable climate conditions.
Isn’t the occasional mud game part of playing football outdoors?
The high schools have been doing it for the past few weekends.
Could a frozen field be any worse than the concrete-hard artificial surface at Three Rivers Stadium was in cold weather?
They played on that for 30 years.
Here’s an idea:
Put all the scientists on waivers and hire some western Pennsylvania guy who has a nice lawn.
Every neighborhood has the guy with the lawn that looks like the Rose Bowl.
He’s the one who goes crazy when kids on bikes take a shortcut over his grass.
This area is thick with people who know how to grow things even though they don’t have a PhD in agronomy.
They learned the tricks from their parents and grandparents.
Turn one of those guys loose on the project and the Steelers can have natural green grass by next fall.
He might even put in some tomato plants just beyond the end zone.
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This is sweeps time in television, which means the local stations wheel out all their biggest investigative reports.
WPXI-TV is promising a look at misbehaving Steelers fans Monday at 5 o’clock.
Drunken, rowdy Steelers fans qualifies as news?
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Why didn’t Pokey Reese win the National League Gold Glove award at second base?
One important stat worked against him. He played 117 games.
You can’t miss nearly a third of the season and hope to win an award like that.
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Faced with declining season ticket sales, the Pittsburgh Penguins did what any forward-thinking organization would do. They added more bobblehead giveaways, bringing the season total to 10.
You’d think the bobblehead craze is getting very near the saturation point as people run out of shelf space to display them.
By the way, how can the Penguins do that many bobbleheads honoring the past and present and not have a Ken Schinkel or Gary Rissling model?
Sports correspondent John Mehno can be reached online at: johnmehno@lycos.com