Opponents visiting Idaho’s capital city playfully refer to the blue playing surface at Bronco Stadium as “smurf turf.”
And since Boise State’s recent rise in football prominence under the leadership of Dan Hawkins and Chris Peterson, the school with the artificially colored grass has enjoyed even further national notoriety from increased television exposure where pundits spend almost as much time talking about the color of the field as they do the Bronco’s varied offensive attack.
And now the Grizzlies, who haven’t played on the blue Boise turf since the Broncos departed the Big Sky Conference after the 1995 season, may again be playing on an oddly colored surface when they visit Eastern Washington University next season.
With the help of a $500,000 pledge from former Eagles’ offensive tackle and current Tennessee Titan All-Pro Michael Roos, plans are underway to install red turf matching the school’s colors at Woodward Field this summer.
Ross, a Vancouver, Wash., native who just signed a six-year $43 million contract with the Titans, was a second-round pick in the 2005 NFL draft after an All-American career at Eastern Washington.
And at 6 foot 7 inches and 315 pounds, I guess if he’s interested in the Eagles’ field being red, who is going to argue with him?
I am, myself, an Eastern Washington Eagle, so I’ll admit more than a passing interest in what the school does. But since it was a college with a “Savage” for a mascot when I was there more than 30 years ago, the school didn’t consult me about the decision.
The Big Sky Conference has weighed in with its concerns about how a red field might appear on a television screen, even though the Eagles’ games are seldom televised unless they are playing the University of Montana. And old timers might argue that grass, even if it’s artificial, should be green. But there are additional reasons why I don’t want to see a red field at Cheney or one that is maroon in Missoula.
EWU Athletic Director Bill Chaves told the Missoulian that since the Roos pledge there have been several significant donors surface to help fund the project.
And he says Eagle supporters favor the move by something like a four-to-one margin. Oh, by the way, I didn’t get the memo asking my opinion on that one.
It’s all about enhancing the Eastern Washington marketing brand, he said.
How about doing that by toughening admittance standards, then leading the Big Sky Conference in the number of Academic All-Conference selections because of added emphasis on graduating players who gainfully contribute to society?
Why is it that benefactors so often surface to enhance playing surfaces, weight rooms, luxury boxes, stadium expansions and the like, yet few put their names on athletic academic centers equipped with the latest technology where student athletes – what a novel term – can spend as much time as they do in the film room studying past and future opponents.
While some athletic enhancements produce needed revenue and, no doubt, help to attract “cream of the crop” athletes, I think something is severely out of balance?
But, then again, my last contract wasn’t for six years. It also didn’t approach $43 million.