A preseason home game for the Jets and Giants, it was clear both teams wanted to celebrate the first football game at the New Meadowlands Stadium with a victory Monday night. It was the Giants who took the win by a score of 31-16.
However, Monday night’s game represented something a little more special than the average preseason game.
As much as everyone was looking forward to seeing the two teams, the new stadium figured to be as much a part of the show as anything.
It was the first National Football League game at the $1.6 billion venue at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey and it was the first time since the 1983 season that the Jets and Giants have met for their opening preseason game.
While home to both the Jets and Giants, the exterior of the 82,500-seat stadium was lit in green for the event instead of Giants blue since the Jets were the designated home team.
Despite reports of “concerns” about the venue’s new FieldTurf surface based on Domenik Hixon’s injury, the game ran very smoothly, confirming why team officials are convinced, based on their years of experience with FieldTurf, that it was not related to the turf.
“It could’ve happened right out here on the grass field,” insisted Giants GM Jerry Reese in an interview previous to the game. “It didn’t look like his foot got caught. It was like he was kind of weaving a little bit and his knee just buckled a little bit. It could’ve happened anywhere.”
It is important to note that every two years, the NFL Players Association conducts a survey of its players where all of the league’s playing surfaces are rated on many performance-based factors. In 2008, for the 4th survey in a row, the NFL Players voted FieldTurf as the best artificial surface in the league.
Many impact players that will call this stadium home had nothing but great things to say about the new FieldTurf surface that was installed earlier this year.
“The turf is great. I didn’t have any slippage.” – Mark Sanchez, Quarterback, NY Jets
“The turf is good. It’s a fast track. Guys are going to really enjoy playing on it.” – LaDainian Tomlinson, Running Back, NY Jets
“I really like it. I love the turf.” – Calvin Pace, Linebacker, NY Jets
The as-yet unnamed venue is the first built expressly to serve as the home of two NFL teams, though the Giants and Jets have shared a stadium for the past 26 years and other NFL teams have had similar arrangements.
The Jets hosted the preseason contest since the Giants get to play the first regular-season game at the new stadium, on Sept. 12 against Carolina. The Jets open the regular season the following day at the new stadium against Baltimore.
