Snow Machines Push The Rubber Out of Bills' Field Turf, Delay Game

It was a gobsmacking sight: Snow-removal tractors doing their heavy-equipment ballet around the Ralph Wilson Stadium field, churning up not only snow but heaps of those black rubber pellets that separates a modern playing surface from a trailer-home porch carpet:

We all got our #jokes off on Twitter, but this was a serious field-safety problem. The grounds crew simply shoveled most of the huge piles of rubber off the field of play and re-started the game.

Per the Buffalo News' Tim Graham, though, the field was hardly cleared:

Still ruts of rubber pellets on the field. Players, especially in snow, will be sliding right through those mounds #Pelletgate #Rubbermatch
— Tim Graham (@ByTimGraham) December 11, 2016

There's more to be concerned about, though: That rubber infill provides the cushion, bounce and release for the five-year-old A-Turf Titan field surface. Now a huge portion of it is gone, in the middle of freezing, snowy weather.

Not only are the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers at much greater risk of bodily injury, they're at greater risk of concussion, too: heads bouncing off that hard, cold surface with half its infill missing is a recipe for disaster.

Unless there's some sort of standard percentage of infill the manufacturer can certify as safe to be removed—and how could there be?—the NFL has no business just letting their most valuable assets go out and risk their bodies, heads, careers and lives on an unsafe surface.