Weekend Winner: Eastern Washington's Horrid New Field

In sports, everyone is a winner-some people just win better than others. Like the bright red turf at EWU, which will trick you into thinking your eyes are bleeding. Even if they probably are.

Obviously we have Boise State to blame, for getting this whole thing started with their famous Smurf Turf. But that's a whole different animal. Blue is a soothing color, easy on the eyes. The red of the Eastern Washington Eagles' Roos Field is a color not found in nature, and it oughtn't be found on your television set on Saturdays.

Well, it probably wouldn't be on TV anywhere but locally, and that's kind of the point. Did you know Eastern Washington was a school? An FCS program? That they are located in Cheney, Wash.? I learned all three of those fascinating facts while reading out their new red FieldTurf.

(As an aside, it's funny how all the news reports refer to it as "FieldTurf," when it's actually a separate company's product called "SprinTurf." When we weren't looking, FieldTurf became the generic name for this particular type of synthetic surface, fittingly replacing that unnatural-shade-of-green surface of antiquity, AstroTurf.)

I'm betting you too learned a lot more about EWU than you knew previously, if only from seeing their logo on that picture above. And don't think the school isn't capitalizing on their newfound relevance. They've begun selling merchandise in the school store, emblazoned with the field's slogan: "Red Is The New Green." But you'll have to wait a bit if you want one; all the shirts are sold out.

So expect to occasionally see Roos Field show up on SportsCenter, and you know the blogs will have a field day. Eastern Washington will now be known as "that team with the ugly-ass field," but when the public's previous reaction was "EWU...is that a community college?", this is definitely a step up.