WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Due to "holes" in the end zones of IG Field, where goalposts for the Canadian Football League's bigger field are usually planted, the Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers played on a shorter field Thursday night.
Lengthy conversations between NFL, Green Bay and Oakland officials ended with the decision that the players should not be in such unsafe conditions, so the playing field was reduced to 80 yards, with each 10-yard line serving as the goal line.
Up until about 20 minutes before kickoff, field workers were trying to tamp down a square of artificial turf in each end zone, to no avail.