Reports Say the NFL Has Known About the Shitty Condition of the Field in Mexico For Months
Source – The NFL’s abrupt decision to relocate the Chiefs-Rams game set for Mexico City raises plenty of questions about why the decision was made so close in time to kickoff, given that a Shakira concert that damaged the field happened on October 11, more than a month ago.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the league had been receiving regular reports regarding the condition of the field since September. And it was a report that arrived on Sunday — after a November 7 concert and a November 10 soccer match — that spurred action.
Reasonable minds may differ as to whether the league should have relocated the game before Tuesday. Regardless of whether it was relocation or resodding of the field or replacement of the surface with FieldTurf, something should have been done before this week.
Apparently, the plan was to continue to receive regular reports about the condition of the field until Monday, at which time an inspection would occur and a decision would be made about whether to relocate the game.
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Nice operation the NFL is running over there. Roger Goodell loves to talk a good game about how we’re all in this together: The league, the teams, the players and the fans. But when it comes to “growing the game internationally” – Read: Make billions of pesos and euros selling merchandise in foreign countries – then what’s a few torn ACLs or paying customers having to eat non-refundable airfares?
Christ, this guy is such a walking cliche. The very definition of a heartless, out-of-touch empty suit with zero interest in anything other than how can benefit. He’s the white guy businessman who was behind every evil plot in ever season of 24. He’s the stuffy, aristocratic officer who sends troops into a fiasco with no clue what they’ll be up against. And Estadio Azteca is his Passchendaele, the muddy, unforgiving hellhole no one who cared about his command would’ve ever have ordered men into. But he doesn’t care about how many seasons get ended or careers ruined. He gives zero fucks about the fans who paid their travel expenses and now it’s too late to cancel. Zero. Fucks. He just wanted the photo op he could point to and tell all the owners, “See? Look at all those brown people I’ve got wearing Patrick Mahomes and Todd Gurley jerseys at 100 bucks a pop! There must be 50,000 of them. Now pay me more!”
Hopefully the players will finally say enough of this. Enough of putting at risk the careers of guys who are lucky to play in the league for four years as it is. Sending them to this substandard stadium 7,800 feet above sea level in a major earthquake zone with a chewed up field just to move merch. I have no respect for their union or their willingness to stand tough and draw a line here. But now that the league’s knowledge of this has been exposed, it’s long past time to end this stupid exercise once and for all.