Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll was not thrilled with the playing conditions at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, yesterday. The Seahawks have reportedly now filed a formal complaint with the NFL about the sloppy playing surface.
The Seahawks did, however, manage to prevail over the Washington Redskins 24-14 in the NFL Wild Card game.
Speaking on ESPN radio in Seattle today, Carroll didn’t mince words in expressing his opinion about the field, according to NBC Sports :
“It was horrible. It’s a horrible field. It’s as bad as a field can get for being dry. And it’s too bad, it’s really too bad. And we deserve better. It just was worn out. And there was a lot of slipping and all that kind of stuff. We should just expect to see a better field at that time of year.”
Carroll added that the ground was “real sheer, and there was just a kind of dirt on top of the grass, so it was just not good footing.”
The agent for injured Seattle defensive end Chris Clemons has blamed Clemons’ knee injury on the “crappy” condition of the turf at FedEx Field.
Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, who also lost his footing on the grass and reinjured his right knee, referred to the conditions as “just part of our home-field advantage.”
Mike Shanahan, the Redskins head coach admitted according to NFL.com that “it wasn’t a perfect field. We all know that.”
The Seahawks next play the Atlanta Falcons in an AFC divisional matchup on Sunday afternoon.
Carroll now on @brockandsalk said “The field was horrible.As bad as a field can get.We deserve better.”Said impacted both teams.
— Liz Mathews 710 ESPN (@Liz_Mathews) January 7, 2013
