Hall of Fame Game Unsafe Conditions Included Melted Rubber, Skin-Burning Paint Thinner

Sunday night’s Hall of Fame game between the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts was canceled due to unsafe field conditions. Football fans desperate for their first pigskin fix since the Super Bowl will have to wait a bit longer. The NFL must figure out a way to put a positive spin on flubbing Brett Favre’s induction weekend.

Reasonable minds can agree that canceling the exhibition game was the correct call. Risking player safety for a largely meaningless game is a bad business decision all-around. No one wants to see a star player suffer a career-ending injury in early August.

Inquisitive minds also want to know what the heck went wrong leading up to the game. NFL.com’s Mike Silver has some astounding details in a column defending the cancellation.

"According to several sources familiar with the field preparation, things went awry after the subsequent painting of logos in the middle of the field and in the end zones on Sunday. Improper paint may have been used, and when it did not seem to be drying quickly enough, someone apparently made the dubious decision to heat the field in an effort to dry it — thus melting the rubber pellets inside the FieldTurf and creating a slick, sticky and (in Baker’s words) “congealed” effect. At one point about 2.5 hours before the game, stadium workers applied a substance that appeared to be paint thinner in an effort to remedy the issue. However, according to a Packers source, one Green Bay employee noticed a label that warned of severe burns when exposed to skin and took a photo of it, showing it to others after the teams later retreated to their respective locker rooms. "

Stephen Holder of the Indy Star also talked about venturing down to the field, and seeing clumps of the field where the paint had dried in a condition he related to feeling like limestone. This would qualify as a comedy of errors. Chasing bad decisions with bad decisions has proven time and time again to be ineffective.

Sure, people make mistakes but the NFL brings in north of $12 billion worth of revenue annually. It seems as if they could have hired a competent crew instead of one led by the Chiefs guy from the Snickers commercial and Tim Taylor.