For the first four years of his NFL career, Mekhi Becton called Metlife Stadium home.
But the phrase, "Home is where the heart is" definitely doesn't apply when it comes to the feelings that Becton, who spent those years with the New York Jets, has towards the stadium in East Rutherford, Nj.
Becton will make his return to Metlife when his Philadelphia Eagles take on the New York Giants in Week 7 action. On Wednesday he told Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports what he really thought of his former home.
"I don't wanna play in that sh---y stadium," Becton said Wednesday. "It's bad. Everything is just bad about that stadium. I don't really like it. I'm just glad I only gotta do it one time a year. Just gotta go in there, do my 1-11 and go home."
Becton, a first-round pick by the Jets in the 2020 NFL draft, missed a significant amount of time due to injuries to his knee, shoulder and ankle during his stint in New York, including most of the 2021 season and the entire '22 campaign.
Becton's season-ending knee injury in '21 occurred on the road against the Carolina Panthers. He was fortunate to have never suffered an injury on Metlife Stadium's artificial turf, though he didn't have many good things to say about the field.
"You can just tell the difference like if you was to get on that turf and (then) go on a different turf," Becton said. "You can tell. It's a night and day difference in turf. It just feels lifted. There's a lot of things that doesn't feel right about that turf."
Multiple players and teams have complained about the artificial turf at Metlife Stadium. Five San Francisco 49ers, including star Nick Bosa, suffered injuries in the same game against the Jets back in 2020. In 2022, Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh criticized the turf after cornerback Kyle Fuller suffered a season-ending injury. Then, Jets QB Aaron Rodgers suffered a season-ending Achilles injury just four snaps into his Jets career in '23, sparking a renewed debate about the surface just months after the Jets and Giants had installed a new turf at the stadium.
Fortunately, Becton will only have to play at Metlife Stadium once a year as a member of the Eagles when they travel to face the Giants, as opposed to the eight—and sometimes more—scheduled home contests at the stadium while he was a member of the Jets.
The Eagles and Giants play at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Eagles' Mekhi Becton Gives Blunt NSFW Assessment of MetLife Stadium as Return Nears.
