Pete Carroll says FedEx Field surface was ‘horrible’

By Brady Henderson

Redskins coach Mike Shanahan has drawn plenty of criticism for sticking with Robert Griffin III even though a knee injury was severely limiting the quarterback during Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks.

The organization is catching some heat, too, for the sloppy condition of the playing surface at FedEx Field.

“It was horrible. It’s a horrible field. It’s as bad as a field can get for being dry,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll told “Brock and Salk” on Monday. “That’s too bad. It really is too bad. We deserve better.”

The quality of the turf at FedEx Field is a bigger story in light of some of the injuries that may have resulted from it. Griffin appeared to lose his footing while scrambling in the first quarter, aggravating a knee injury that was forcing him to wear a brace. Seahawks defensive end Chris Clemons suffered what the team fears is a serious knee injury when he slipped in the third quarter. His agent, Donal Henderson, blamed the “crappy” condition of the turf.

“It just was worn out. There was a lot of slipping and all that kind of stuff,” Carroll said, adding that it didn’t put one team at a disadvantage because both were affected by it. “… But we should expect to see a better field at that time of year.”

Chicago’s Soldier Field has what is widely considered one of the worst playing surfaces in the NFL. The Seahawks would know. They’ve played there four times in the past three seasons, and one of those meetings was a divisional-round playoff game two seasons ago. Snow further compromised the Soldier Field turf that January day, but Carroll said that playing surface was still better than the one they played on Sunday.

“There was just kind of dirt on top of grass and all,” he said of the FedEx Field turf. “There just wasn’t good footing, and you [saw] some problems there.”