Groundskeeper George Toma says Super Bowl LVII field the Eagles and Chiefs played on was overwatered
Toma, who has prepared fields for 57 Super Bowls, told ESPN on Monday that Ed Mangan, the NFL field director, "Didn't take care of it. He wouldn't listen to anybody."
Recently retired NFL groundskeeper George Toma, who has prepared every Super Bowl field, is claiming that the poor field conditions at State Farm Stadium for Super Bowl LVII were due to the turf being overwatered in the days leading up to the game.
The field was watered four days before kickoff in the morning and rolled into the stadium on a moveable tray that housed the grass field, Toma told ESPN. But the 94-year-old said that the field should’ve been watered in the morning and kept outside to dry before being rolled into the stadium.
He blamed NFL field director Ed Mangan for the lack of field care that caused Eagles and Chiefs players alike to fall in the biggest game of the year.
“He waters the hell out of it and puts it right into the stadium and that’s it,” Toma told ESPN. “Never sees sunlight again. He can’t do that.”
Toma, a native of Edwardsville, Pa. and a former Kansas City Chiefs groundskeeper, said he was told during the week that the field was starting to decay. “It had a rotten smell,” he added.
When the grounds crew took off the field cover after practices and rehearsal prior to the Super Bowl, Toma said on The Dan Le Batard Show that the grass was meshed.
“There was mud all over the grass — wet. It was saturated,” Toma said on the show.
“I need [Mangan] to say, ‘Yes, I overwatered it, I’m responsible for it.’ Not putting the blame on me.”
He also said that Mangan did not sand the field enough and it was too late by the time he did so.
» READ MORE: Eagles players rip State Farm Stadium’s turf, ‘the worst’ field conditions
The slippery conditions caused numerous players to lose their footing. After the Eagles’ 38-35 loss to the Chiefs, edge rusher Haason Reddick said, “I’m not going to lie — this is the worst field I’ve ever played on.”
More players spoke out days after the game, including Travis and Jason Kelce on their podcast New Heights, saying center field, on the logo, was the slipperiest part.
“It was not an ideal turf situation out there,” said Jason Kelce, the veteran Eagles center.
Multiple Eagles players changed their cleats before the second half to a seven-stud cleat, hoping to have a better grip on the field.
“I’m not going to make no excuses about the field because I slipped the first possession of the game, and I changed my cleats,” receiver A.J. Brown said on an episode of Raw Room released last week.
“We should have knew what it was from the first time we practiced out there that week. We’d go out there. We running routes. We slipping coming off the ball. I’m talking about we slipping on our back.”
State Farm Stadium, home of the Cardinals, is a grass field and not a regular turf, like many NFL stadiums have. The grass was grown at a local sod farm in Phoenix, meaning it was likely harvested into rolls.
Yanqi Wu, a professor of plant and soil sciences at Oklahoma State University, along with other experts, told the Washington Post that there was nothing wrong with the grass.
Wu developed Tahoma 31, a Bermuda grass cultivar and one of the grass varieties selected for the Super Bowl field. In 2017, it was cleared for commercial production and several major stadiums and ballparks use Tahoma 31, including Lincoln Financial Field.
» READ MORE: The Eagles’ grounds crew chief went to Qatar to prepare for hosting the 2026 World Cup
“A lot of people focus on Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass, which is actually the least likely culprit of the scenario, to be perfectly honest,” Grady Miller, a professor of turf management at North Carolina State University, told the Post. “Many fields with Tahoma 31 were created. It was good weed. It’s good weed.”
The NFL spent two years preparing the grass for the Super Bowl. According to Toma and others, the total cost of growing and installing the turf was $800,000.
The league released a statement the day after the Super Bowl, saying: “The State Farm Stadium field surface met the required standards for the maintenance of natural surfaces, as per NFL policy. The natural grass surface was tested throughout Super Bowl week and was in compliance with all mandatory NFL practices.”
The longtime groundskeeper, though, decided to retire after this season after 80 years of service.
“I can’t take it anymore,” Toma told ESPN. “Me and the league are finished. They can’t tell me what to do anymore. We’re done.”