Santonio Holmes doesn’t like FieldTurf, surface at MetLife Stadium
By Mike Dyce
Wide receiver Santonio Holmes made his triumphant return to the New York Jets in the season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after suffering a Lisfranc injury last season. There was some doubt that Holmes would be ready for the season amid talk that he was “milking” his injury.
Holmes returned though and caught one pass for 13 yards, his lack of stats could be in part because of his injury and ongoing recovery, but it also could have been a result of drawing Darrelle Revis in coverage. An interesting quote from Holmes emerged that says he doesn’t like the playing surface at the Jets’ home stadium.
“I don’t like playing on FieldTurf, flat out,” Holmes said, via the New York Daily News. “I’d rather play on grass and we have to deal with playing on FieldTurf and practice on it a few days before playing in our game so I kind of got a good feel for it.”
“It’s just not real. It doesn’t feel the same,” he added. “It’s totally different from grass. It’s unexplainable to a person who (doesn’t) perform on the field like we do. The grass feels better, softer on the feet. But to run on rubber pellets and things like that is just totally not acceptable for what we, as football players, (who) grew up playing on solid grass and now we’re playing on something totally different.”
He is going to have to get used to it though because as of right now he isn’t a free agent until 2016.