The new sod that combined with a steady rain to turn Heinz Field into "Four Rivers Stadium" for Monday night's game between the Steelers and Miami Dolphins will remain in place for the rest of the season.

Steelers President Art Rooney II said yesterday his organization and the NFL will do their best to improve the field and dry it out before Sunday night's game against the Cincinnati Bengals, then look at alternatives when the season ends. Chief among the choices will be the installation of artificial turf for the 2008 season.

"We're going to consider all of the options," Rooney said. "We haven't made any decisions and we won't make any decisions until after the season. At this point, I think we'll give [artificial turf] consideration."

Crews were busy yesterday trying to dry out the soggy sod that was placed on top of the DDGrassMaster field over the weekend after four high school games Friday and Pitt's game Saturday. The cost to the Steelers was about $150,000. It was the first game where an existing field was covered with turf rather than torn up and replaced -- an idea NFL officials strongly suggested to the Steelers as well as to the Philadelphia Eagles.

The difference at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field, where the Eagles and Temple University's football team play, is that nearly two weeks will have gone by between the sod installation there and the first football game, Sunday against Seattle.

The goal now is to try to get the surface at Heinz Field into better playing condition this week. Rooney said workers will roll the field and aerate it so it can drain better. The NFL's game operations director, Tim Davey, is in town to oversee the operation.

"They thought it was a good option," Rooney said of the NFL officials' resurfacing idea. "I think everybody realized that it was a little bit of a test case, so to speak. This particular kind of resodding hadn't been done, laying it on top of a GrassMaster surface. I think it would have worked fine but for a kind of a freak weather condition. It certainly would have been a lot better than leaving it as is after the high school and college games."

Rooney and some players said the new sod was great after they walked on it Sunday evening, before the rain hit. It was covered by five separate tarpaulins, but water seeped through the seams and drenched those areas of the field. The Steelers' DDGrassMaster field -- which consists mostly of Kentucky bluegrass tied down and together with synthetic fibers -- has a natural drainage system.

Workers at one point were poking the overlaid sod with pitchforks in hopes it would help drain the water. Aeration this week might help if it rains again, they believe.

"I think it would have been in great shape, frankly, Monday if it weren't for really having rain of, from what I understand, near record levels," Rooney said.

Pittsburgh International Airport registered 1.31 inches of rain Monday, according to AccuWeather.com.

The Steelers have stayed with grass in one form or another since the opening of Heinz Field in 2001 because they believe it's a better playing surface than artificial turf.

"I think our players to this day still prefer it in general," Rooney said. "We think it's a better surface for playing football, it's a truer surface, what the game is meant to be played on.

"Having said that, I have to say that some of the new surfaces are a lot better than the old ones and play a lot closer to what a grass surface is like. I think there are options out there; we'll continue to evaluate it."

One option Steelers officials have studied is the new generation of FieldTurf installed by West Virginia University at Mountaineer Field this past summer. WVU coach Rich Rodriquez said yesterday he hopes that's the way the Steelers go because "we're going up there next year" to play Pitt.

"I don't know what they're going to do," Rodriquez said. "This part of the country, I don't know how you can play that many games this time of year. I think you've got to have FieldTurf in this part of the country. The obvious advantage is when the weather is unpredictable, wet and all that, it still plays as a fast surface.

"I'm not an agronomist, but I've never heard of laying turf on top of turf. Sometimes it takes a game like the Steelers' game last night [to change minds]. They're smart people. They know what's best for their athletes and their people."

The site of mucky Heinz Field became a national story because the game was televised on Monday night on ESPN and because the game was offensively impotent until Jeff Reed kicked a 24-yard field goal with 17 seconds left for the only score in a 3-0 Steelers victory.

One punted football landed and stuck straight down in the muck like a plugged golf ball, its point sticking up. Reed said that on his 44-yard field-goal try that swirled badly to the left, the ground slid and moved the ball before he kicked it.

Rooney said one of the last things his club wants to do is not hold the high school championships at Heinz Field -- four from the WPIAL plus the City League title game.

"We think it's an important thing in this community and it's been going on for a long time, so we would be very slow to make that decision," he said.

Asked yesterday if he would recommend to ownership that artificial turf be installed at Heinz Field, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said, "We have to look at those options and we will. I'm not concerned about it right now. The field we have is the field that we have. We play the Bengals this week. I tend to stay singularly focused."