Bear Digest

Bears Hoping for Better Footing

New Bermuda sod was put down at Soldier Field over the Labor Day weekend to try and avert a disaster like at the lone preseason home game this year.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears Hoping for Better Footing
Bears Hoping for Better Footing

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Chicago BearsSan Francisco 49ers

The Bears and 49ers will be playing on a freshly sodded field on Sunday after complaints and problems with the old turf earlier this summer.

A new grass field was put down by the company Carolina Green over the Labor Day weekend and it is a bermuda grass. 

It's the first time they put Bermuda grass in at Soldier Field. It's a grass type usually used in the south becaues it adapts well to tropical and subtropical climates and grows best in high temperatures. It's best known for use on southern golf courses but there were half a dozen NFL stadiums with the turf last year.

The Bears always had bluegrass or a blend of bluegrass and rye.

A week of time to take root hardly seems ideal but the Bears have had short periods like this in the past when sod was put down.

The Bears and Chiefs preseason game on Aug. 13 was played on a chopped-up field so poor that it drew criticism from Bears players Cairo Santos and Robert Quinn.

The NFLPA president, JC Tretter, blasted the field conditions in a tweet.

Prior to that Bears-Chiefs game, the Chicago Fire soccer team had already changed the venue of one August match against New York City FC because of poor field conditions at Soldier Field.

A few concerts and another Fire game were played after the Bears-Chiefs game.

The turf has long been a problem at Soldier Field. 

In 2011, the Bears had to cancel a family fest practice at night a few hours before it was to be held because of poor field conditions and then held the practice at a high school field in Bourbonnais, Ill. near their training camp.

Former Bears kicker Robbie Gould, the current 49ers kicker, has been a frequent critic of the Soldier Field conditions and blasted the field in 2012 and 2014 before he left.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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