Bear Digest

Soldier Field Seems to Be Coming Back to Haunt Bears Again

Analysis: Sod issues and now another problem have popped up at a stadium the Bears are hoping to leave someday.

Gene Chamberlain

Bears fans call out for autographs after Saturday's game at Soldier Field.
Bears fans call out for autographs after Saturday's game at Soldier Field. / Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK
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It's apparent something has to change at Soldier Field before the Bears play there next in the season opener with Tennessee.

One thing could take care of itself and the other needs to be addressed.

Prior to the game a great deal of attention was being paid to the condition of the turf.

Long a problem at Soldier Field, this stopped being the case after the Bears went to a new type of sod. It's a strain of Bermuda grass that can be grown easily in colder climates and it was a godsend. The field was being called dramatically improved then.

However, before the game some seams were apparent on the sod which had last been put in place. Almost as much social media was devoted to this prior to the game as to what Simone Biles was wearing while she stood on the sidelines at a Bears game (She had a Packers jacket on with the image on it of her husband, Bears safety Jonathan Owens. "What that was was it had a picture of me on it," Owens said. "She hasn't been around much so she doesn't have a lot of Bears gear and she was just supporting me. That was all about her showing her support of her husband. We're going to have to get her some more Bears gear.") 

The Bears aren't worried about this. They think the grass and field condition should rectify itself over the next few weeks even if it wasn't at its usual pristine level.

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"Our guys do a great job putting the turf down," coach Matt Eberflus said. "This time it was put down a little later because of the concerts and everything like that. It hadn't been down that long. In terms of its safety and its play and what it was on the field, it was fine.

"It was good, because the NFL, obviously, tests that. It was up to their standards. Once it ends up being in there for a couple of weeks before the first game it will look beautiful."

The other part about the field that needs to change by the first game is the lineage. It cost the Bears Caleb Williams' first touchdown pass. He's still looking for one.

On first-and-goal from the 7, three plays after his 45-yard completion to Rome Odunze, Williams found Odunze again for an apparent 7-yard TD. But that was a score only if the field was the length of a soccer field.

Odunze had to admit afterward how he confused the end line with the back line for a soccer field behind it. So when he made an easy catch for the TD, he had been out of bounds thinking he was inbounds. He should have paid more attention to the pylons than the lines.

"You know, if I'm being honest (it) definitely was like in my peripheral," Odunze said. "I seen the backline and figured I was in the backline by a comfy margin, but that's something you can't have out there. You've got to be aware of the double lines and stuff like that, so it got me a little bit but now I've learned."

The real solution for that one is easy enough and that's to remove insignificant soccer lines from a place that was only built because it's an NFL stadium.

The Chicago Fire is still playing three more matches at Soldier Field, though, including one Aug. 31 and one Sept. 14. The Bears open on Sept. 8.

Perhaps some day the Bears will be able to make sure there are no soccer lines or concert goers trampling all over their sod or forcing them to put sod down too late. That will happen when they own their own stadium.

Although that's probably not going to be the case if they go with the city plan of putting an indoor stadium along the lakefront since it would then be someone else's property. But at least the sod wouldn't be a problem because it would be indoors.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.