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By Cameron Kiszla
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The New England Patriots have a tall task ahead of them before the preseason starts.
The turf at Gillette Stadium reportedly has to be replaced ahead of the preseason opener against the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday.
The issue, according to Mike Reiss of ESPN, has to do with a rubber shock pad that sits under the turf called an "E-layer."
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That E-layer wasn't used at Gillette Stadium because the base is stone-dust, not concrete, Reiss reports, and different turf is being installed before Thursday's game.
"The field we're installing is the latest version of the field we took out in January," chief operating officer Jim Nolan told Reiss. "From a player perspective, it will be incredibly consistent with what they played on last year."
At least one popular analyst, though, isn't sold.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk sounded off on the turf issue in a post of his own — and took shots at ESPN in the process.
Florio called Nolan's explanation of the issue "sort of confusing and subtly oozing with spin."
"The bottom line is that the first field wasn’t good enough, forcing the Patriots to rip it out and try again. Quickly," Florio wrote.
Florio also indicated that he believes the problem is "a fairly big deal" and criticized its publication only as "the second item in Reiss’s weekly news and notes column" for ESPN.
"But, hey, that’s what can happen when the NFL owns 10 percent of the media outlet making the editorial decisions," he wrote.
Could the Game Be Canceled?
Florio also pointed out that it's possible this preseason game could be canceled if the turf isn't installed in time or fails to pass the inspection.
He listed a few other times preseason games were canceled due to improper playing conditions, including another game involving the Colts.
"Ten years ago, the Hall of Fame Game between the Colts and Packers didn’t happen due to paint that had become 'congealed and rubberized,'" he explained.
Officials at the time were worried that players could "slip and suffer injuries" on the midfield logo or end zones, as reported by Brakkton Booker of NPR.
Florio added that another game, this one between the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles, was canceled "due to 'uneven cutouts' in the playing surface that, at the time, was used for both football and baseball."
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