NFL America today gets its first look at Bob Kraft's Magic Carpet, which was installed in less than two weeks at a cost of about $750,000. I think we're all in agreement that three-quarters of a mil is a small price to pay for beauty. And solid footing.
Some purists no doubt will miss the good old days when the Patriots' home field looked like the surface of the moon and assorted Jets and Patriots slipped and sloshed around like 22 men running on ice in wingtips.
It was a sod, sod story. In the fall of 2006, Gillette's natural grass succumbed to the Revolution, the Big Bang Tour, New England weather, and too many Patriots practices and games. Patriots opponents (particularly the Colts) complained, network announcers mocked us, and stoic coach Bill Belichick pretended not to notice as the playing conditions deteriorated dramatically over the course of the first five home games. New England's home field was the Big Dig of NFL playing surfaces, a national embarrassment.
We suspected, of course, that Belichick secretly liked the grid. Why else would it look like that? But three losses in five home games indicated that the shoddy sod was not favoring the local lads, and after the latest attempt at resodding failed, the all-powerful Krafts ordered the fake stuff for the foreseeable future.
The Patriots practiced on their new field Wednesday and Friday and Belichick said, "We didn't really have any problems with it. It's similar to the surface we have up in the bubble. We're kind of familiar with it, but still, every one is a little bit different. It is perfectly playable.
"I think there's no question that the footing will be a lot better than it was out there. We couldn't get through practice without falling down, multiple times, let alone game speed.
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