For someone who has played a whopping 193 NFL games in his career, Jason Kelce is as qualified as it gets to judge an NFL stadium’s quality. Hence, in the latest episode of “Whiskey Ginger” with Andrew Santino, the Eagles legend listed his worst NFL stadiums, with the AT&T Stadium being a shocking inclusion.
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His list comprised three stadiums, in no particular order. The first stadium Jason mentioned was MetLife Stadium, home to the New York Giants and the New York Jets. Second on his list was the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field, followed by a shocker with the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium.
The future Hall of Famer substantiated each pick with solid reasoning, albeit from his own perspective. For context, he judged the MetLife Stadium based on the adverse effect it had on him physically.
Jason Kelce Ranks MetLife Stadium Among the Worst for Its “Atrocious” Turf
For any stadium, the turf is the most basic part of the infrastructure that simply shouldn’t go wrong. After all, it is a key component in dictating the flow of the game as well as ensuring the safety of the players. Unfortunately, MetLife Stadium doesn’t boast the greatest of turfs, prompting Kelce to rank it among the worst stadiums in the league.
“I think I’d probably go just from like which stadiums I didn’t like physically the most… I hated MetLife. We had a lot of success there, we won a lot of games [but] the state of the field was absolutely atrocious for years. They just redid the turf, it’s a little bit better, but it was really really bad [before],” Kelce said.
What really baffled the former NFL star about the atrocious nature of the turf was the fact that the stadium was built relatively recently. So for the authorities to not improve the quality of the turf despite recent renovations, is a mess of the highest order.
“I don’t know how they messed that up that bad, but it was really bad,” he added. While The MetLife Stadium posed Jason challenges due to its turf, Lambeau Field’s interior infrastructure was nothing to gloat about for him.
Jason Kelce Hates Lambeau Field for Its “Awful Infrastructure”
Jason, before criticizing the Packers’ home turf, acknowledged that the Wisconsin-based stadium is super cool to visit. What makes the stadium cool for Jason is its narrow, dingy hallways, an ode to the yesteryears of infrastructure. However, this is also what irks him about the stadium, because the hallways are too narrow for men of his size to walk without a hassle.
“Green Bay has awful infrastructure, but it’s like the coolest place in the world. It’s the coolest thing ever like you’re walking down a hallway that you can’t walk side by side with somebody because it’s like so narrow when they designed it, like you’re walking out single file and that’s cool… it’s just that you can’t walk side by side,” the former Eagles star said.
At the end of his list was the AT&T Stadium, which he disliked because of what it made him feel while inside the dome.
“I Never Liked Dallas…”: Jason Kelce Reveals Why He Dislikes AT&T Stadium
AT&T Stadium is undeniably one of the best stadiums in America. The home turf of the Dallas Cowboys, over the years, has been entrusted with big sporting spectacles for its state-of-the-art infrastructure, along with connectivity. Hence, having the AT&T stadium on Jason Kelce’s list of the worst NFL stadiums is a shocker. But it isn’t a shocker for the Eagles star because his metric is different.
While many are enamored by the stadium’s infrastructure, lights, and retractable roof, Kelce finds all the features a bit too overwhelming. Perhaps it’s the old-school guy in him, but being at the glitzy AT&T Stadium makes him feel like an entertainer and not an athlete.
For Kelce, the vibe and the environment have to match the task he is set to undertake, and at the Cowboys’ stadium, he just doesn’t feel like he is playing at an NFL stadium.
“I never liked Dallas, [it] just feels the least like you’re at an NFL stadium… It just feels the most different; it’s like this you’re more of like an Entertainer rather than like a football player,” Jason said.
However, even he couldn’t resist praising the stadium at the end. The Super Bowl winner did acknowledge that he found the visiting locker room of AT&T, the best among the stadiums due to its enormous space. “I will say [AT&T] probably has the best visiting locker room, really. It’s an enormous space like it’s a good visiting locker room,” Kelce said.
Kelce, in the end, did admit that he hasn’t had a great record at AT&T Stadium. So one might never know what bias one is carrying before releasing a list. The purpose of such rankings should be to appreciate the diversity of thoughts and engage in critical discussion if necessary.
