For years, NFL gamers have expressed their choice for pure taking part in surfaces as an alternative of cheaper, artificial turfs used in a significant number NFL stadiums a solely to be rebuffed by house owners.
In a 2020 statement, then-NFLPA president JC Tretter wrote, “The NFLPA is advocating for groups to transform synthetic apply and sport fields to pure grass fields,” whereas pointing to harm information to help his argument.
“Gamers have a 28% greater fee of non-contact decrease extremity accidents when taking part in on synthetic turf,” Tretter wrote.
Three years later, the NFLPA president combatted a league narrative following one 12 months of inconclusive harm information, writing, “Now, 10 of the earlier 11 years present the identical actual factor — grass is a considerably safer floor than turf.
“As an alternative of following the long-term information…the NFL used an outlier 12 months to have interaction in a PR marketing campaign to persuade everybody that the issue does not really exist,” Tretter acknowledged.
He additionally addressed house owners’ willingness to swap out synthetic surfaces for grass on the subject of staging soccer matches at their billion-dollar stadiums.
“House owners are extra prepared to offer protected fields for soccer gamers than for the soccer gamers…who, in lots of circumstances, helped pay for the stadiums the place these fields lay,” Tretter emphasised.
Per NBC Sports Bay Area, 14 NFL stadiums use one hundred pc pure grass, whereas the Inexperienced Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles use Desso GrassMaster, a natural-synthetic hybrid.
Contemplating the cash the NFL and its groups rake in yearly, there is no good excuse to forgo grass fields, particularly when cities and taxpayers finance the billion-dollar stadium initiatives.
Take U.S. Financial institution Stadium, constructed for $1.1 billion in Minneapolis, for instance. Final season, the Vikings switched from a slit-film turf to a safer synthetic different moderately than a grass discipline. Steve Poppen, the crew’s govt vice chairman and chief enterprise administration officer, defined the choice by way of ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, saying, “U.S. Financial institution Stadium…was designed for synthetic floor. We do not have the flexibility to develop grass in that stadium proper now.”
No less than MetLife Stadium, which price $1.6 billion, can help a grass discipline. But whereas soccer golf equipment will benefit from the extra forgiving floor, NFL gamers will not be as lucky.
If change happens, it can doubtless come on the negotiating desk when agreeing to phrases on the subsequent collective bargaining settlement, which will not be for one more six years. The present CBA expires in March 2031.
Till then, each time an NFL stadium removes its turf for grass to accommodate FIFA, which requires pure taking part in surfaces, it is going to be like rubbing salt in gamers’ wounds.
Most groups have the facility and sources to do the fitting factor. Gamers aren’t asking for the world, only a few blades of grass. If stadiums like MetLife can set up grass surfaces for soccer tournaments, then NFL gamers must be prolonged the identical courtesy.
