According to an annual player survey released by the National Football League Player's Association, the Cincinnati Bengals have the 11th best artificial playing surface in the NFL. At least that's something, right? Every ranking the Bengals are apart of, they always seem to be listed towards the bottom. Good. We're ranked somewhat near the top. And we're not talking about ranking 11th with playing time by players the team drafted.
Wait. What?
Only 13 teams play with an artificial playing surface?
According to the survey, released by ESPN's AFC South blogger Paul Kuharsky on February 3rd, only the Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings have a worse artificial playing surface than the Cincinnati Bengals.
This isn't new. Paul Brown Stadium initially opened with Kentucky Bluegrass, which ranked as the third-worst playing surface in the NFL in a 2003 NFLPA survey. Hamilton County eventually put in FieldTurf in 2004 in the hopes of reducing maintenance costs. Unfortunately, according to the survey, it didn't help much improving player's impressions on the playing surface.