Craig Carton & Willie Colon Debate MetLife’s Turf Problem

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
Carton Show, Big Mac, Willie Colon for the big fail today. 888-808-1019.
That is the number to join. So I did notice, I happened to watch a lot of the World Cup yesterday, hoping for, I don't know, excitement, entertainment, whatever it might be. I got none of it. Like they played an entire game plus an extra 30 minutes. Argentina had zero shots on goal.

**Willie Colon** (0:23)
No. Zero. Yeah.

**Craig Carton** (0:26)
Zero.

**Michelle** (0:27)
Not one.

**Craig Carton** (0:28)
It was like, hey, we got a shot on goal. Zero shots on goal.

**Michelle** (0:33)
Right?

**Craig Carton** (0:33)
For like, I think the entire game. So that kind of sucked. But the thing I watched, and I think if you're in New York and you watched it with the crooked eye as well, was the fact that MetLife Stadium did not look like MetLife Stadium because there was actual grass on the ground. I know they played other World Cup games there over the last four or five weeks. I've seen it before, but it was a reminder. I know you guys as athletes have talked to this, how bad the playing service is even though it's a lot better than the original Giants Stadium was for all those years.
If we can do it at a level good enough for these Primadonna European soccer players, right? Then why can't we do it for the Jets and Giants? And don't tell me it's too expensive. The two franchises combined are worth more than $20 billion.
Now, is it as bad as people tell us it is, Willie? And what's your take as a guy that played not having grass?

**Willie Colon** (1:29)
Yeah, every athlete is going to want grass, man. It's just more forgiving in a multitude of ways. When you're playing on grass, man, because you got to understand, when you lay down turf, you're laying it down on concrete, right?

**Craig Carton** (1:40)
That's the bottom of a gravel, concrete, whatever.

**Willie Colon** (1:42)
Yeah, filling it out with those robots and all that stuff. When you plant and you dig and whatever you got to do in the field to do what you need to do, man, there's no forgiveness in that. So that's why we're seeing the ACLs and all these things pop open. Right. And on top of that, turf is 10 times more hotter when turf out there.

**Craig Carton** (1:58)
Oh, which is why offensive linemen get winded so fast.

**Willie Colon** (2:00)
That's not it.
But the heat is heat. And on top of that, we understand like it's really about money management. These arenas or whatever you want to call them, the stadiums rather, they want to use them for concerts and dirt bites and monster jams and all.

**Craig Carton** (2:16)
And grass is not as forgiving for that.

**Willie Colon** (2:18)
And on top of that, because of the weather, right? Like grass is hard to keep up with. So if the grass isn't taking it...

**Craig Carton** (2:25)
So it's muddy, it's frozen, it's whatever, right?

**Willie Colon** (2:27)
But also if there's a pothole out there, you put your foot in one of those things, boom.

**Craig Carton** (2:30)
You're going to bust a knee up that way too.

**Willie Colon** (2:32)
You can get nasty.

**Craig Carton** (2:32)
And look, you're going to get hurt. It's football, violent sport, grown men running really fast, right? It just seems like if so many guys have said publicly, I hate playing on that particular turf. And across the league, most guys will tell you, I don't know why, that the MetLife Stadium turf is the worst in the league, which seems like we have to accept it as fact now, because so many different guys have said it. You've got your own guys scared to play. I view you guys as commodities. You guys have skill the average person will never have.
And if I know you're more, maybe not as alignment to be respectful, but if my skill position players are more likely to get hurt on surface A versus surface B, why would I ever have them play on surface A when it's going to negatively impact the investment I made in that guy? You guys are commodities.

**Willie Colon** (3:26)
Because they, it's the next guy up.

**Craig Carton** (3:28)
But you follow what I'm saying? No, 100%.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:30)
But it goes back to the dollar.

**Craig Carton** (3:31)
And I'm not saying that, you know guys, like, Scataboo's going to get hurt regardless in that one play. But I'm not sure, you look at a lot of wide receivers that have gotten hurt, torn ACLs, I'm not sure if they still get hurt.