LANDOVER, Md. — Stress kept Pete Benevento awake during sleeping hours.
As the Washington Football Team’s director of grounds and turf, Benevento’s thoughts remain on every blade of grass at FedEx Field, even when he’s away from a stadium he has maintained since 2010. To his wife’s chagrin, the father of two refers to the field as his “first child.” The work angst in his life came from knowing that so-called first child was dying.
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Replacing grass is customary, but its sand base becomes finer over time. That leads to the sand breaking down and slowing the drainage process. Already hindered by an outdated system, Benevento split his focus on game-day prep and day-to-day triage.
“The building is getting older, and the life cycle just ran its course,” Benevento said.
Waking up in the middle of the night and rushing to the stadium when an unexpectedly heavy storm moved into the area became routine. Drainage is “the key to our life,” Benevento said on behalf of his small grounds crew, which is why there’s an urgency to turn off the irrigation system with a downpour brewing. On other days, placing a tarp on the field midweek would “stress” the grass and not allow Mother Nature to do its work.
Any home gardener knows steady upkeep is critical. That’s without dozens of hulking athletes in cleats stomping around or hundreds of concertgoers rockin’ and rollin’ and whatnot. Don’t forget the judgy onlookers and critics noting issues with the field’s look while taking a pristine green ground for granted. No wonder there wasn’t anyone more excited about the organization’s plan for the field’s first major reconstruction since the stadium opened in 1997 than Benevento, the person tasked with babying arguably the NFL’s most-maligned playing surface.
“First emotion was relief because it’s been long overdue,” Benevento said. “Second emotion was, oh, boy, we’re actually going to do this now.”
FedEx Field may be put out to pasture once the team’s lease expires in 2027 as owner Dan Snyder seeks to build a new stadium in the greater Washington area. This project provides Benevento and his small crew, which also maintains the practice fields in Ashburn, Va., with a “learning experience” for whatever comes next.
“We’re gonna take our data that we find, we’re gonna pass it up (the chain of command),” Benevento said. “Whatever decisions they make, we’re going to use what we’ve learned from this field in our next facility or at the park.”
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In between, there are games to play and non-NFL events to host as the world bounces back from the COVID-19 pandemic. To use a phrase from Washington’s lore, the future is now when it comes to fixing the field and alleviating any “unnecessary stress on the grass itself,” Benevento said while touring the work in progress.
Benevento’s crew runs five deep, including himself, in Ashburn and at the stadium. A small number of workers from Carolina Green, the company overseeing the project, are dealing with the daily installation, but their number will swell to as many as 20 once the sand and sod are installed. Washington began using Carolina Green’s proprietary Bermuda grass product starting with the Army-Navy Game in 2011, but the relationship with the company is now all-encompassing.
Roughly 70 percent of the removal process is complete, which means only a small patch of the old grass remains. Apologies to those hoping for some type of buried treasure from the late Jack Kent Cooke, the former Washington owner who built the stadium, but Benevento said nothing significant was discovered during the excavation — though he received a scare when he shoved his hand into a hole and a bat flew out.
Excavators have been taking out 14 inches of the original root zone, but they’re doing so with care because of what is underneath.
Using them for delicate work seems oxymoronic, but it’s necessary with 2,258 heating pipes in the ground. Operators scraped to within 2 inches above the heat line. Benevento feared hundreds of pipes would break during the process. A sigh of relief followed when only a half-dozen required repairs or replacement.
Once phase one concludes, more than 500 truckloads of sod, sand and root zone will be hauled out and repurposed at local landfills. From there, the checklist of changes in the second phase includes the installation of more than 2 miles of new drain piping, 500 tons of new root zone material, a new irrigation system and, yes, the Bermuda grass field.
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All aspects of the project connect and are therefore potentially worrisome, but Benevento said the two trunk lines running on either side of the field are the most sensitive. Though it’s not at the NFL-required 1 percent grade between the lines, the surface isn’t flat in those areas. Using lasers on tripods helps ensure there’s enough of a rise so the water can flow as desired. Once the team finishes that section, “the project can take a deep breath and just plug and play on the pipes,” Benevento said.
The reconstruction of FedEx Field’s playing surface will take two months. (Ben Standig / The Athletic)Part of the original field has been kept for now so dump trucks can enter the bowl with upwards of 5 tons of sand and haul out the remnants. Washington chose a specific type of sand, half of which has been sitting in the stadium’s parking lot, following consultations with engineers at Penn State.
The new setup should drain faster. That’s great, but it means there’s less time for the roots to absorb water before it reaches the pipes. Watering the stadium field often is critical because of its sand base, whereas in Ashburn, the practice fields’ base of sand and native soil holds more water.
Although the fields are Benevento’s domain, those playing at the stadium on Sundays occasionally check in with him.
The resurfacing became a priority following the hiring of head coach Ron Rivera last year. Washington completed the reconstruction of its practice fields ahead of last month’s rookie camp and tested the new grass during three weeks of offseason workouts. Following Thursday’s final day of minicamp, Rivera said the upgrades allowed the practices to be held on the main fields without “worrying about wet spots and grass being torn up.”
Among the players, kicker Dustin Hopkins has been hitting up Benevento most frequently. For Hopkins, Washington’s kicker since 2015, the concerns involve his plant foot.
“With this scenario, he’s not going to worry about his plant foot slipping out because the grass is wet. It’s gonna be firm. His foot will stay in place,” Benevento said. “He won’t have any hesitation about the plant foot slipping out as he goes to kick the ball.”
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There’s a mental aspect to how the new surface likely impacts those tasked with running, receiving and tackling. There’s no tricking up the surface to aid Washington’s speed threats, including wide receivers Terry McLaurin and Curtis Samuel, but “mentally, it may be faster for them, because it may not be as slick” following the drainage upgrade, Benevento said.
The project will conclude in late July. Washington will debut the new field in its preseason opener against the Patriots on Aug. 12.
Inquisitive fans will notice fewer chunks of grass flying out when players run. Of course, some will be ripped out by cleats, but less tearing of the field means fewer divots and a better postgame appearance.
Benevento first became interested in field maintenance as a baseball-playing kid in New Jersey and that enthusiasm carried through his college studies and into his professional life. Once this project is complete, his job will be aided by 21st-century technology.
That includes Wi-Fi, which will allow Benevento to handle the abrupt middle-of-the-night weather changes from his home. But like a protective parent, he’s vigilantly tracking every stitch of the reconstructed field to ensure there are no imperfections.
The project doesn’t automatically improve Washington’s chances of winning back-to-back NFC East titles or push it closer to its first Super Bowl triumph since the 1991 season. That’s up to Rivera and his coaching staff, along with Hopkins and his teammates, plus some good fortune and avoiding the chaos associated with the franchise over the last two decades.
There’s no tearing up the past, but by digging up the old grass at FedEx Field, there’s hope for a fresh, green start going forward.
(Top photo: Ben Standig / The Athletic)
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