Steelers, Browns Players Reportedly Blast 'Embarrassing' Acrisure Stadium Field

It's not officially fall until complaints about the Acrisure Stadium playing surface arrive.

ESPN's Brooke Pryor reported Wednesday that members of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns criticized the state of the turf in Pittsburgh's 23-9 Week 6 win. Words like "outrage" and "embarrassing" were used.

"The NFLPA has conveyed its concern to the NFL and will work to ensure that players are not put in that position going forward," a source from the NFL Players Association told Pryor.

Acrisure Stadium opened in 2001, and you can probably find complaints about the grass in almost every year of its operation.

The venue hosts the Steelers and Pittsburgh Panthers, and it also stages state high school playoff games later in the year. The wear and tear from all of those events starts to show before too long.

Pitt had home games on Sept. 27 and Oct. 4. By the time the Steelers and Browns were ready to play, the surface had visibly deteriorated, and players were having trouble with their footing.

In the most glaring example, Steelers kicker Chris Boswell missed a 54-yard field goal because his plant foot slipped and took a chunk out of the grass.

Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers called the field "borderline unplayable."

"I just felt like it got real beat up," he said, per The Athletic's Mike DeFabo and Zach Powell. "By the time the third quarter rolled around, that thing was really beat up, so I feel bad about what happened to Miles (Killebrew). I'm not sure if you know there was any carry there. I know the field gets a lot of play."

By Monday, the process of resodding the grass was underway.

That will help to provide a solution for now, and neither the Steelers nor Pitt has a home game this week. But Acrisure Stadium is hosting games on back-to-back days (Oct. 25 and 26) later this month, so the new grass be put to the test.