Former Philadelphia Eagles DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson was tweeting through it in regards to the Super Bowl LVII turf on Monday, taking aim at both the NFL and the Kansas City Chiefs offensive line.
The discourse surrounding the field at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium continues during this dead portion of the offseason. First, it was Brandon Graham blaming the turf for their loss in the Super Bowl. Now, a recent report indicated that the NFL privately blamed players’ choice in cleat studs for the issues with footing in Super Bowl LVII.
Gardner-Johnson saw aggregation of the report on social media and reacted, mentioning that he changed out his cleats three different times during pre-game warm-ups.
Man pre game I went through 3 different cleats!! Even the studs wasn’t working 😒 explain that please https://t.co/HzHLtnRyot
— C.J. Gardner-Johnson (@CGJXXIII) July 3, 2023
Gardner-Johnson’s next comments were about the turf that Arizona used in the regular season, saying they should have stuck to the original playing surface. Ironically, the Chiefs actually played in Arizona during Week 1 of the regular season as well. Andy Reid even claimed in an interview with Pro Football Talk that the equipment staff was prepared given the issues they had with footing back in Week 1 against the Cardinals, which caused injuries to both Harrison Butker and Trent McDuffie.
If that’s the case we should’ve played on AZ original grass! we was fine the week we traveled there and won 🙃
— C.J. Gardner-Johnson (@CGJXXIII) July 3, 2023
Alas, Gardner-Johnson turned his focus to the Chiefs’ O-Line, claiming that the Eagles’ D-Line would “smash” them on “legit grass.” Of course, Kansas City’s offensive line allowed no sacks during the game.
Run that bowl back on legit grass , the Dline SMASH that Oline I’m sorry 🗣️🗣️🗣️
— C.J. Gardner-Johnson (@CGJXXIII) July 3, 2023
Gardner-Johnson, now with the Detroit Lions, will get a stab at the Chiefs on the best playing surface in the NFL at Arrowhead Stadium during Week 1 of the 2023 NFL season. We’ll see how his new team fairs against the latest iteration of the offensive line in Kansas City.
