Former Philadelphia Eagles player C.J. Gardner Johnson believes they would have defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 57 for this reason.
Super Bowl 57 had the makings of a true football classic, considering Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts broke numerous records and Patrick Mahomes' second-half heroics led the Kansas City Chiefs to a 38-35 victory. One of the negatives of the game was the condition of the playing field at State Farm Stadium, which saw players slip and slide throughout.
The controversy surrounding the playing field continued. Months after former NFL groundskeeper George Toma said that the field was overwatered. Then, ProFootballTalk reported that the NFL privately placed blame on the players' cleats as the reason why they were slipping.
After that report dropped, former Philadelphia Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson said on Twitter that he had to change his cleats three times during pre-game warmups. Then, Gardner-Johnson made quite the claim, saying that if the game was played on "legit grass," the Eagles' defensive line would have beaten the Chiefs' offensive line.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson claims Eagles would have beaten Chiefs in Super Bowl 57 if the game was played on 'legit grass'
The former Eagles safety said in a separate tweet that they should have played on the grass field at that stadium when facing the Cardinals on the road that year, while bringing up that they won.
Gardner-Johnson's claims created quite a stir not just from fans, but from players as well.
Former Kansas City Chiefs offensive tackle and current member of the Cincinnati Bengals Orlando Brown Jr. chimed in and called out the Eagles' defensive strategy for the game. Specifically, Brown pointed out that the Eagles' "rush plan was to win with games when rushing 4 with a mix of man and zone thinking that s*** was getting home," and that they "rushed 5 with Cov 1 and a splash of 3." Brown concluded by saying that he had to get his cleats in the ground to stop the rush and that the slippery field gave an advantage to the Eagles defense.
Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney also gave his thoughts on Gardner-Johnson's claim that Philadelphia would've won with better field conditions. Toney simply said, "I make people miss on normal grass too."
Toma had placed blame on NFL field director Ed Magnan for the field conditions in an interview with ESPN, mentioning that he watered the retractable field on the Wednesday before the game and brought it back inside the stadium, failing to give it proper sunlight. Additionally, Toma claimed that the field wasn't sanded properly, and it had an odor due to placing a tarp over it during rehearsals.
The NFL had paid $800,000 for the Super Bowl 57 field.
Garnder-Johnson no longer plays for the Eagles. This offseason, he signed a one-year, $6.5 million contract with the Detroit Lions.
With the condition of the Super Bowl 57 field resurfacing, Gardner-Johnson believes that the Eagles would have won their second Lombardi Trophy. But, as we all know, the game has concluded, and the Chiefs are Super Bowl 57 champions. Maybe, just maybe, they'll have a rematch in the big game in the near future.