According to Albert Breer of NFL.com, DJ Swearinger of the Houston Texans said Monday that the playing surface at NRG Stadium is to blame for Jadeveon Clowney’s injury.
Second-year safety D.J. Swearinger told NFL Media on Monday that Clowney said after suffering the injury that it happened after he landed on a “hole” in the turf at NRG Stadium. The retractable-roof domed facility has a natural grass surface that is grown outside the building on trays, which are brought in and pieced together to form the field.
The team anticipates he’ll be gone for an extended period, according to multiple sources, and Swearinger said he was told “three to six” weeks. NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reports Clowney was scheduled for surgery on his meniscus Monday.
“He told me on the field when it happened, he was just like, ‘Bro, I just jumped, came down and hit one of the holes on the field,’ ” said Swearinger. “There are a few holes in the grass, so he said he thought he stepped on one of those holes and got hurt. So I told him to try and walk it off, see if he could go. He went in the next play and couldn’t go, so I told him to go to the sideline and see what’s up with it. And he went over to the sideline, and I guess that’s when they told him (he had to stay out).”
Former Texans punter Brett Hartmann sued the venue-management company SMG and the Harris County Convention and Sports Corporation, but not the team in 2012. The case has not been resolved.
In January 2010, then-Patriots receiver Wes Welker blew out his ACL on the NRG Stadium turf, prompting coach Bill Belichick to launch into very direct criticism of the Houston playing surface.
“The turf down there is terrible,” Belichick said on Boston sports radio station WEEI-FM the day after the injury. “It’s terrible. It’s just inconsistent. It’s all the little trays of grass and some of them are soft and some of them are firm and they don’t all fit well together, those seams. … Some of it feels like a sponge, some of it feels real firm and hard like the Miami surface. One step you’re on one, the other step you’re on another. I really think it’s one of the worst fields I’ve seen.”
This is obviously a reoccurring issue in Houston, something needs to be done so players don’t continue to get hurt.