Rose Bowl’s grass act: A new field in time for BCS title game

What you probably didn't know about Monday's Bowl Championship Series championship is that it will be played on an entirely fresh field, placed directly atop the one you saw Wednesday at the Rose Bowl. Like a blanket over another blanket.

Senseless, right?

By all accounts, that Rose Bowl field was still nearly flawless after Wednesday's game, but that didn't stop groundskeepers. Foolish perfectionism is a Pasadena birthright and one I don't condone. Yet that's exactly what is behind this all-new grass, which requires a Herculean effort on a frazzled five-day time frame.

Sure, they have modified forklifts that unspool the sod in giant swatches. But in the end, laying a new field requires nearly 75 groundskeepers to push the puzzle together, starting work as soon as the Rose Bowl ends, blowing away the confetti, marking the sprinkler heads, then as midnight approaches then passes, then sunup comes laying down this magic carpet, by many estimates the finest playing field in the country.

Add six pockets and you've got yourself a very nice pool table.

As is my nature, I pitched in on this transformation. It really began a month ago. Soon as the last UCLA game ended Nov. 23, I joined Rose Bowl groundskeepers as they scraped out the old field and began to put in a new one.

I was there from the beginning, digging out clumps of old sod, thick and stubborn, like thatches of Einstein's hair. Wouldn't budge, most of it, till you got your mitts into it good clawing, pulling and twisting.

When that didn't work, I'd attack the stubborn turf with a shovel, chased with a couple of Tylenol.

A shovel, by the way, is this giant spoon you use to move dirt and sand. Many of you have never touched one. More of you prefer not to.

But I did. Just to take you inside the ultimate L.A. makeover. A blanket over another blanket. A Rembrandt over a Vermeer.

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Rose Bowl's grass act: A new field in time for BCS title game