Peter King in his infinite wisdom

[JuanGuzman]

This article was posted 4:04 eastern on Si.com 2hours and 21 minutes before Devin Hester returned the opening kick for a touchdown.

 

Bad news for Bears?

Soggy field could make return man Hester non-factor

Posted: Sunday February 4, 2007 4:04PM; Updated: Sunday February 4, 2007 4:04PM

 

MIAMI -- As it became apparent in the runup to Super Bowl XLI that this might be a mudder's day, the prevailing theory in the press was that a bad field would favor the Bears. The Bears are used to playing in muck, the smart money said, while the Colts were at their best on a fast track.

 

Both premises are true. Both premises do not lead to the right answer, however.

 

As I take my seat in the press area three hours before gametime, I notice one thing down on the Dolphin Stadium field: It's uncovered. At an NBC brunch this morning, Andrea Kremer, who'd been at the stadium doing a live shot for the Today show, told me the field, for some reason, was not covered as steady rain fell.

 

"The field was not covered overnight,'' Steelers PR man Dave Lockett reported. "It was not covered by design.''

 

Why have a tarp at all if, on a morning when significant rain is falling, that tarp is not used?

 

Now, I guess the league thinks the drainage system on the field is fine. It had better be. I asked Cris Carter, who had a cup of coffee with the Dolphins four years ago, and whose son played on the Dolphin Stadium turf, if he thought this would be a factor. "No,'' he said in his car on the way to the game with his family. "This field has the best drainage system in the world. When my son played his playoff game on that field, it had rained all day, and there was another game before his. And the field was beautiful. I don't think it'll be a factor.''

 

If it is, the player a slow track will hurt the most is Chicago kick- and punt-returner Devin Hester. You saw what happened in the two Bears' playoff wins, over Seattle and New Orleans. Hester, on a slippery pitch, was a total non-factor -- and this comes after a regular season during which he returned five kicks and punts combined for touchdowns. For the HBO Inside the NFL show this week, I asked Bill Cowher about the five most important factors that would decide the outcome of Bears-Colts. One, he was sure, would be whether the Colts could neutralize Hester by directionally kicking off and punting. He said Adam Vinatieri should either pop his kickoffs up to the 15, giving the kick coverage time to get to about the 25-yard line before Hester can move, or he should kick to the pylon at either end of the goal line. The worst thing that could happen, Cowher said, is that the kick would go out of bounds and the Bears get the ball at the 40. "I'd rather take the chance on Rex Grossman driving it 60 yards on me than giving the ball to Devin Hester in an open field,'' Cowher said.

 

But if the field is slippery, it'll be interesting to see if Colts coach Tony Dungy and special teams coach Russ Purnell will change whatever they'd planned to do regarding Hester. That'll be the biggest story of a rainy first quarter of this game.

 

Should be a good one. We'll see if the field becomes a big factor or none at all. It would be a huge factor if Hester, for the third straight game, will be eliminated as a factor before the game even starts.

 

Link

[loadofmularkey]

You're right. When I think "soaked football field", I think kickoff return extravaganza.

[marauderswr80]

Dolphins Stadium is sand base......

 

When sand is try it gives way too much, when its wet it gets solid. I thought the field held up really well. Grounds crew did a heck of a job with the field.

[/dev/null]

Of the top 10 things I think I thought that I thunk but not too thoroughly, #3.5 is Peter King's bold predictions never come true

 

PK = RJ