NFL clears Hard Rock Stadium field surface for Jets at Dolphins

After last night’s downpour during the Duke at University of Miami game being played in Hard Rock Stadium, the field surface was flooded and torn up. Speculation had the field in dangerous conditions and “horrendous,” per a source speaking to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Sunday morning, however, the field has passed NFL inspection and, as a source told the Miami Herald’s Adam Beasley and Jordan McPherson, will be “an NFL-quality surface for the game today.”

The Hard Rock Stadium grounds crew worked throughout the night and Sunday morning to repair the field and prepare it for today’s game between the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets. The crew used leaf blowers to remove the standing water from the field, where puddles had formed throughout Saturday night’s college game, and away from the sidelines, which had transformed into mud pits.

Dolphins owner Stephen Ross paid for over $500 million in renovations to Hard Rock Stadium in recent years, which included the addition of a canopy over the seating area. The field, however, remains uncovered and open to the weather. Last year, the Dolphins changed sod providers after repeated failures in the surface early in the season. With that change, there have been no further issues with the field - until last night’s combination of torrential rain and a football game.

With the field passing the NFL’s inspection, it appears the grounds crew worked a miracle. We will not know for sure how well the field will actually stand up until after kickoff, but at least it has made it through the first set of tests.