Why did someone vandalise the Cleveland Browns home field at the FirstEnergy Stadium?
While it’s understandable that fans may be frustrated with the Browns’ 3-7 record, this is still very much a case of someone going way too far.
It would seem the Cleveland Browns have as much trouble with on-field issues as they do off of it, but strangely enough this was actually a situation that affected the Browns’ field itself.
Who damaged the Cleveland Browns’ field?
With reports confirming a bizarre turn of events at the Cleveland Browns’ FirstEnergy Stadium, we’re pretty sure that the franchise’s ground crew will have to work overtime in order to prepare the field for Sunday’s game. What exactly happened? It appears that an unidentified individual entered the stadium and subsequently to cause major damage to the turf.
According to reports, Police in Cleveland are now in the process of investigating a break-in at the stadium, which occurred in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Indeed, authorities have indicated that at the moment their working theory is that someone jumped the fence at the stadium and then proceeded to drive a golf cart onto the field. Indeed, the tresspasser in question must have had quite the time as aside from tire tracks, there were even donuts on the field. Reports also included photos and footage from a helicopter which was used to scan the damage from above. “...Tire treads wind out from the 20-yard line” and run “almost the entirety of the western side of the field.”
What have the Cleveland Browns said about the incident?
Given the level of damage caused by the intrusion, the aforementioned grounds crew won’t have much time to repair the damage before the Browns take on Tom Brady on the Buccaneers at 1:00 p.m. ET. At any rate, the franchise continues to cooperate with Police in the hopes of discovering the who, how and why of it all.
“We are aware of the incident that occurred early Tuesday morning at FirstEnergy Stadium and have provided the Cleveland Division of Police with all relevant information,” the Browns said in a statement. “Based on our internal evaluation, there was some superficial damage to the playing field that our grounds maintenance team is currently working to repair. We take great pride in the strong reviews and reputation of our stadium’s playing surface, have been in touch with the NFL on the matter and are confident after repair [that] our field will be ready for Sunday’s game vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.”