College Football Team Being Blamed for Slippery Super Bowl Playing Field
Besides the Chiefs winning and Patrick Mahomes further building on his already-considerable NFL legacy, the big topic of conversation at the Super Bowl this year was the deplorable condition of the playing surface.
Time after time, players from both teams were slipping and sliding on the grass, with some deciding to change their cleats in order to find some solid footing.
Now it appears one college football program is taking some of the blame for the grass: Oklahoma State took credit for providing the surface for the event, as the school bragged about on social media before kickoff.
ESPN did a write-up about the surface — "The grass at Super Bowl LVII has been years in the making" — describing it as one of "the newer breeds of grass that have been developed with the funding of the United States Golf Association."
The grass project was called Tahoma 31.
"Tahoma 31 is a mix of two types of Bermuda grasses and rye grass, and it was developed at Oklahoma State University under the watchful eye of Dr. Yanqi Wu," according to the report.
"He started the process of creating Tahoma 31 in 2006, when he crossed China Bermuda grass and African Bermuda grass. A year later, the seeds were harvested and the grass was tested and studied all over the country until 2018."
An agronomist at the USGA boasted that it would be "gratifying to see a grass that I guarantee it will perform so well on TV."
But after watching the Super Bowl game, it's safe to say it could have performed better.
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