RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from Yahoo Sports — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 1 sourcesAfter the final World Cup game at Gillette Stadium, out went the FIFA-mandated grass and in came an artificial turf field.
Now, the artificial turf field will be hastily replaced with a different one.
Via Mike Reiss of ESPN, the NFL and NFL Players Association independent laboratory testing protocol determined that the first artificial surface was " noncompliant ."
Patriots chief operating officer Jim Nolan explained the situation to Reiss but, frankly, Nolan's quotes are sort of confusing and subtly oozing with spin. The bottom line is that the first field wasn't good enough, forcing the Patriots to rip it out and try again. Quickly.
"The field we're installing is the latest version of the field we took out in January," Nolan told Reiss. "From a player perspective, it will be incredibly consistent with what they played on last year."
It's unclear why that field wasn't reinstalled in the first place.
The new field is being installed this week. And the clock is ticking. The Patriots host the Colts to open the 2026 preseason on Thursday night.
What if the new field doesn't pass muster? It wouldn't be the first time a preseason game was scrapped.
Ten years ago, the Hall of Fame Game between the Colts and Packers didn't happen due to paint that had become " congealed and rubberized ." (The debacle, which sparked litigation from those who bought tickets and in many cases traveled to Canton, caused the NFL to move the game from after the enshrinement ceremony to before it.) Twenty-five years ago, a Ravens-Eagles game at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia was cancelled due to " uneven cutouts " in the playing surface that, at the time, was used for both football and baseball.
The rush to install another new field seems like a fairly big deal, something that merits more attention from ESPN than the second item in Reiss's weekly news and notes column. But, hey, that's what can happen when the NFL owns 10 percent of the media outlet making the editorial decisions.
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