SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Nick Pappas began preparing the playing surface for Super Bowl LX long before the two teams that will face off in the 60th edition of the NFL’s big game — the AFC champion New England Patriots (17-3) and the NFC champion Seattle Seahawks (16-3) — started getting ready for the 2025 season.
The NFL’s turf guru picked the sod farm that began growing the grass for the game nearly 16 months ago, and Pappas has spent time since then monitoring the progress. The job went into overdrive in January, when Pappas and his crew started a monthlong installation and preparation process to make sure the story of the game is about the teams and not the grass.
The field at Levi’s Stadium — the open-air venue in Santa Clara that has been the home of the San Francisco 49ers since 2014 — will be the stage for the country’s most-watched sporting event of the year on Feb. 8, along with the pregame and halftime festivities and concerts that make Super Bowl Sunday a cultural capstone. The 6:30 p.m. Eastern game will be televised by NBC and streamed by Peacock.
“I always joke with everyone, ‘It’s the most expensive real estate there is; everyone wants a piece of it,'” said Pappas, whose official title is NFL field director. “Trying to set that calendar up in a way that we have this time and space available to maintain it and work on the field and prepare it, but also provide time and slots for all those different entertainment pieces, the halftime rehearsals and so on, that becomes a bit of a challenge just to make sure that we can all get what we need done.”
The process is an intensive one, starting with selecting the sod farm.