Watching the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs slip, slide and stumble throughout Super Bowl LVII brought back memories for Danny Amendola.
Though the most recent Super Bowl was played on a fresh, newly installed playing surface at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium, that venue always has been notorious for having poor traction. According to Amendola, that reputation prompted a pregame mandate from Bill Belichick when the 2014 New England Patriots faced the Seattle Seahawks there in Super Bowl XLIX.
“When you play a night game in AZ, for some reason the grass always gets a little dewy at night, and it’s so slick,” Amendola said this week on ex-Patriots teammate Chris Long’s “Green Light” podcast. “I’ve worn seven-studs (cleats) on that field numerous times. One Super Bowl we played in, Bill made it a mandatory seven-stud game. We were all bitching and moaning, but we didn’t have too many slips.”
Football cleats come in two general varieties: detachable (aka seven-stud) and molded. The former typically provide better grip on grass fields, but some players prefer the latter, which tend to be lighter.
“On that surface, you’ve got to switch the tires out and put the seven-studs in,” Amendola explained. “I feel like you get a lot better traction. You don’t feel like you can play as fast in them, but at the same time, you’re chopping it up, you’re gripping the turf. I would have worn seven-studs, and I’m curious to know anybody that slipped (in Super Bowl LVII), look at the cleats they were wearing. They were probably wearing the wrong tires.”
Though he and some of his teammates grumbled about Belichick’s order, Amendola knew it was the right call. The now-retired wideout went on to catch one of Tom Brady’s four touchdown passes in New England’s iconic 28-24 win.
“We watched the film after we played Seattle in that stadium for the Super Bowl, and they had guys on the ground all night,” Amendola said. “And the fact that we (all had seven-stud cleats), I felt better, and I kind of switched my routes up knowing that they were going to slip. I switched my releases up a little bit and have them kind of get on skates a little bit more, and I felt very comfortable that game with seven-studs.
“And you could look on film, and Seattle Seahawks that night were all over the ground.”
