Eagles RB LeSean McCoy: Houston Texans' field is 'terrible, bad'
Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy became the latest player to criticize the Houston Texans' field at NGR Stadium when he joined Monday's ProFootballTalk Live.
McCoy and the Eagles beat the Texans at NGR 31-21 on Sunday, their first game there since 2006.
"Yeah, that field is terrible, bad, bad," McCoy said. "Probably the worst field I ever played on."
After Sunday's game, several other Eagles players criticized the field. Center Jason Kelce called it "a pretty dangerous playing surface" and linebacker Mychal Kendricks said "something needs to be done about it," according to SportsRadio 610 in Houston.
• Injury Watch: A slew of Eagles starters go down
The stadium uses two different playing surfaces: NFL games are played on grass, while all other events, including college football games, take place on artificial turf.
NGR has a retractable roof, so the grass is laid down in eight-foot square "trays" so it can be removed and exposed to sunlight. In 2011, former Texans punter Brett Hartmann sued the owners of the stadium after he caught his foot in a seam between the trays, tearing his ACL and fracturing his fibula.
"There’s so many holes, potholes in it, rocky,” McCoy said Monday. “It’s like they measured the squares out and put them in piece by piece. There’s so many holes, it’s like this can’t be a real NFL field. The stadium’s actually nice, but the field is so bad."
• MMQB: Eagles should trust in Mark Sanchez
In September, Houston Texans safety D.J. Swearinger said rookie Jadeveon Clowney told him he stepped on one of "the holes" in the field when he sustained a torn meniscus in the team's season opener.
McCoy said players are "putting our life on the line" when they play in games and "the least [the Texans] could do is have the field in better shape so a guy could just go out there and run and be safe."
- Molly Geary
