'Sodfather' in charge of Super Bowl turf blasts NFL's final decisions before the game was played and says the field had 'rotten smell'

• A former NFL groundskeeper blasted the treatment of the Super Bowl turf in the hours before kickoff.
• Days beforehand, the 94-year-old said the field was the second-best Super Bowl turf he'd worked on.

The longtime NFL groundskeeper George Toma, nicknamed "The Sodfather," has come out swinging against the field conditions at State Farm Stadium during Super Bowl LVII.

Speaking with ESPN's Josh Weinfuss, Toma said the field was slippery thanks to the NFL's field director, Ed Mangan.

"He waters the hell out of it and puts it right into the stadium and that's it. Never sees sunlight again," Toma said of Mangan. "He can't do that.

"It had a rotten smell," Toma said of the field.

"He sanded it two weeks too late," Toma told ESPN. "He had only one sanding. He should have had two or three sandings, but he didn't do s---. And that was it. And not only that, he didn't take care of it. He wouldn't listen to anybody."

In the days leading up to the Super Bowl, Toma was excited about the quality of the field.

"I believe this is the second-best grass we've had," Toma, who has worked the turf of every Super Bowl in NFL history, told reporters on the Tuesday before the big game.

The grass — Tahoma hybrid Bermuda, overseeded with rye — was wheeled in and out of the stadium so it could get sunshine ahead of Super Bowl Sunday and cost an estimated $800,000.

"We bring it back in at 6 at night," Toma said of the turf. "It takes one hour to roll out and one hour to roll in. I feel bad. On Thursday, it'll be brought in, and it won't see sunshine again until after the game."

Despite the high praise for the field before the game, once the action kicked off, things got messy fast. Players on both teams struggled to keep their feet underneath them and were blunt in their assessment of the quality of the turf after the game.

"I'm not going to lie, it was the worst field that I've ever played on," the Philadelphia Eagles defender Haason Reddick said after the game, according to Zach Berman of The Athletic. "It was very disappointing. It's the NFL. You would think it would be better so we could get some better play, but it is what it is.

"It was terrible," the Philadelphia offensive tackle Jordan Mailata said in the locker room after the game. "I'm no grass expert. It was just slick. You couldn't anchor. You had to get your whole foot in the ground.

"If you try and use just your toe, it would slip right away. You saw the receivers. It was like a water park out there, and we're playing on grass."

The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Toma's criticism, but the league put out a statement after the game defending the quality of the turf.

"The State Farm Stadium field surface met the required standards for the maintenance of natural surfaces, as per NFL policy," the statement read. "The natural grass surface was tested throughout Super Bowl week and was in compliance with all mandatory NFL practices."

As things stand, Toma doesn't plan on being back to check up on another Super Bowl field anytime soon.

"I can't take it anymore," Toma told ESPN. "Me and the league are finished. They can't tell me what to do anymore. We're done."