‘Very unsafe’ – Soldier Field’s playing surface in bad shape hours before Monday Night Football due to ‘unprecedented’ scheduling

This is not what you want to see hours before kickoff.

The Chicago Bears will welcome the Minnesota Vikings to Soldier Field for the first Monday Night Football game of the year, but there’s just one problem.

The grass surface of Soldier Field looks to be in very poor condition.

In a video posted to X by KFAN’s Chris Hawkey, he captured the grounds crew trying to plant sand and seed mix in the uneven areas of the field.

And it’s not one specific area, but rather all throughout the field.

Soldier Field has long struggled with its playing surface, and it’s in particularly rough shape right now after the events at the end of last month.

Those events were five concerts in an “unprecedented” weekend right before the season kicked off.

ESPN’s Courtney Cronin reported on the field’s condition and what the Bears were doing to fix it.

“Several members of the field crew at Soldier Field are surveying the turf right now and placing a sand/seed mix in areas that need to be filled on the playing surface,” Cronin wrote on X. “The field was re-sodded after a stretch of five concerts at the end of August.”

Oasis, The Lumineers, and System of a Down all performed at the stadium over the past 10 days, leaving the grounds crew with serious work to do before Monday Night Football kicked off.

The video quickly made its way around the internet, with many chiming in—most notably expressing concern for the players’ safety.

“The grass at Soldier Field looks awful,” one fan commented on X. “The Chicago Bears have had terrible field conditions for years and years, how does the NFL keep letting them get away with it? High school fields look better than this.”

Getty

Getty

“The NFL needs to hold owners accountable. These men are risking their careers tonight. Do better,” an angry fan posted on X.

More and more rolled in.

“That seems very unsafe.”

“That field looks like they went to Home Depot for grass carpets this morning.”

“Looks like it could fall apart at the seams any second now.”

“I do not understand why Soldier Field continues to have concerts on a daily basis days before Week 1.”

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While the attention before the game has been on the field’s surface itself, it will quickly shift to who is playing on it when the game begins.

After missing his entire rookie year due to a torn meniscus, J.J. McCarthy will finally make his NFL debut. How he fits into Kevin O’Connell’s offense remains to be seen.

But what’s certain is that it will be a whole lot easier for the 22-year-old with Justin Jefferson as his primary target.

Meanwhile, everyone will be looking at Caleb Williams as he heads into a big year two and how he looks under new head coach Ben Johnson.

There is a lot of pressure on Williams and Johnson to hit the ground running. We will find out shortly.

And here’s hoping the playing surface stays out of the postgame conversation.