Two years ago, when the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles faced off in Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona, much of the post-game commentary revolved around the field itself. Players on both teams were slipping and sliding all night, with Eagles left tackle Jordan Maliata saying the surface was like “playing on a water park.”

Nearly a dozen players had to switch cleats mid-game to get better traction, and Eagles linebacker Haason Reddick called it “the worst field” he had ever played on.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. That year’s Super Bowl attracted more than 110 million viewers in America alone, and the NFL had spent months (and millions) preparing the field. They wanted it to be perfect; it just didn’t turn out that way.

After the game ended, there was plenty of blame to go around. George Toma, also known as the “Sodfather,” went on a media tour to say the field had been overwatered too late in the process without the appropriate time to dry. The man who had worked every Super Bowl in history also claimed that the tarp placed on the field during halftime show rehearsals and media day caused the recently installed grass to rot and that the field should have been sanded several more times throughout the week.

Toma probably felt comfortable saying these things because he was 94 and set to retire after that year’s Super Bowl. However, the result was clear: The NFL needed to implement a new process (with better technology) to ensure this didn’t happen again.

This process is now being run by Nick Pappas. The UMass grad oversees a team of employees responsible for all of the NFL’s neutral site games, including international games in places like London, Germany, and Brazil, the Pro Bowl, and the Super Bowl.

With so much newfound fan interest in the process behind preparing a Super Bowl field, I spoke with Nick this week to learn more about how it all works. He explained the logistics, the pros and cons of different surfaces, and how the league is leveraging new technology to create universal guidelines for the quality of every NFL field.

For starters, this year’s Super Bowl is more straightforward than others. Rather than shipping in new grass from Arizona or California to build an entirely new field from scratch, as the NFL has done for the last two Super Bowls, the Chiefs and Eagles will play on the same synthetic turf surface that the New Orleans Saints used this season.

The NFL sends Nick down to future Super Bowl locations more than a year in advance for planning purposes, but the real work starts about a month before the big game. This is when Nick will arrive in that year’s Super Bowl city with a crew of 25.

These 25 people will live in New Orleans for a month this year and are tasked with preparing and maintaining every field the NFL uses during Super Bowl week. That includes the stadium field used for the game, of course, but it also includes fields at both AFC and NFC training facilities (i.e., where the teams practice throughout the week) and fan experience fields used for various NFL marketing activations.

Nick and his team will begin painting the field two weeks before the Super Bowl. This non-hazardous, acrylic latex paint is designed for temporary application and removal on synthetic turf surfaces. Grass fields require more paint because the paint is often removed when the grass is trimmed throughout the four-week period, but the NFL will still use about 350 gallons of locally sourced paint for this year’s Super Bowl field.

The NFL’s creative department is in charge of designing the Super Bowl field, with Nick and his team beginning the painting process about two weeks before the game.

The required football markings go down first, followed by the NFL shield, trophies, and logos. Once teams have been decided through the AFC and NFC Championship games, Nick’s 25-person crew — which includes two members hitting their 30th Super Bowl this year — then use stencils to execute the prescribed look to perfection.

Turf Nation, a company based in Dalton, Georgia, about 90 minutes north of Atlanta, made the turf for this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans. The synthetic turf surface is a 100% monofilament fiber system with sand and crumb rubber infill, specifically designed to play firm and fast, maximizing player performance and safety.

Nick will then distribute documents and parameters to describe precisely what is permitted on the surface during Super Bowl week. These documents differ depending on what type of surface is being used (natural grass, synthetic turf, indoor, outdoor, etc.), but the documents cover everything that everyone needs to know, all the way down to how many people are approved to be on the Super Bowl field during halftime show rehearsals to the approved weight of stages, carts, and A/V equipment.

Unlike natural grass, synthetic turf doesn’t necessarily die or wear out during this process. However, the fibers can still become overly matted, so Nick and his crew will use a combination of tarps, concert decking, and 3D cushion mats to protect the field.

To replicate the exact look that halftime show participants and production talent will see during the game, Nick and his crew use custom-made tarps to cover the field made to the same size, specifications, and design you would see during the game.

Throughout the week leading up to the Super Bowl, the field is extensively tested to ensure it meets the highest quality standard. The NFL has a strict set of criteria for approval that all fields must meet prior to use for games or practices, and they have gotten really creative with technology (and data) over the last several Super Bowls.

This includes sensors implanted in the field to tell Nick and his team the field’s temperature and moisture levels throughout the week. The process also includes much more advanced technology, like a relatively new system called the “BEAST.”

Short for “Biomechanical Elite Athlete Shoe-Turf Tester,” the BEAST is a physical machine that tests the interaction between a player’s cleats and the football field. This machine simulates how a player might move across a football field, running and cutting, to help the grounds crew determine what changes (if any) need to be made.

Data from the BEAST is uploaded to a cloud system for analysis and turned into a visual display. The data breaks down the football field into 60 different sections on a visual control panel, allowing field experts to examine a surface section by section.

The Beast is currently only used for research purposes, but Pappas believes it will eventually be adapted for mandatory use, as the NFL has been using it to collect data before and after games at stadiums across the league and the last few Super Bowls.

The interesting part about the Super Bowl preparation process is that it gets better and better each year for a reason you might not think: International games.

The Super Bowl is in a class of its own, but with the NFL increasing its international presence each year, international games essentially act as a testing ground for Pappas and his team. Not only are these games being played on a global stage, but they often present many of the same challenges as a Super Bowl, including condensed timelines, elongated pregame introductions, pregame concerts, halftime shows, and more.

Over the last several years, fans have become more interested in this process. The men and women who prepared this year’s Super Bowl field in New Orleans spent a lot of time and effort ensuring that fans and players had the best possible experience.

But weirdly, the Super Bowl crew hopes no one notices. The players are the storyline, and the game is the product. If nobody notices the field, then they have done their job.

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