Soldier Field Looks Rough Ahead of Chiefs at Bears

The conditions at Soldier Field have seen better days as KC opens up the 2022 preseason.

The Kansas City Chiefs are in the Windy City on Saturday looking to get their 2022 preseason slate started off on a good note, but they'll also have to be cognizant of how poor the conditions are against the Chicago Bears. Soldier Field certainly isn't in great shape right now, and it doesn't take a grounds crew specialist to tell.

This tweet from Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times says it all: 

This is not photoshop. This is what the field actually looks like today. pic.twitter.com/NCtRAJxYWK

— Jason Lieser (@JasonLieser) August 13, 2022

Jesse Newell of The Kansas City Star also provided a slightly different angle of the field. While the grass doesn't appear to be quite that bad from a bird's eye view, a closer look reveals what seem to be divots in the grass and plenty of bare spots throughout the field. Considering there hasn't been a single game played in the stadium yet this season, that's far less than ideal with a long year ahead for Chicago.

In fact, the conditions of Soldier Field's playing surface have been so poor that current Bears kicker (and former Chiefs kicker) Cairo Santos sought out "poorly maintained public parks" down in Florida this offseason in an effort to get a closer feel for what he'd eventually be dealing with. Here's more from Santos in Lieser's article from earlier in the week: 

"Especially Week 1, our first game of the season — I’ve seen better,” Santos said, somehow sounding surprised yet not surprised whatsoever at the same time. “It’s just what we have to deal with. The less of a problem you make it in your mind, it helps you overcome it and just go."

As always, a top goal for everyone in the preseason (and in general) is to get through games with a clean bill of health. Lackluster — or flat-out bad — field conditions can pose a challenge to accomplishing that feat. For the sake of both the Chiefs and Bears, they'll be hoping that things aren't truly as bad as they look and Soldier Field won't prove to be troublesome.

Read More: What to Look For in the Chiefs’ First Preseason Game