Change could be in store for the NFL.
Following a start to the season that has seen a rash of injuries — many of which have occurred on artificial turf — the NFL Players’ Association is calling for a permanent switch to grass surfaces for all teams.
Union president JC Tretter wrote a statement entitled “Only Natural Grass Can Level The NFL’s Playing Field,” and laid out the evidence for why the change should happen. Thirteen of the NFL’s stadiums use artificial surfaces.
“The data supports the anecdotes you’ll hear from me and other players: artificial turf is significantly harder on the body than grass,” Tretter said in the statement. “Based on NFL injury data collected from 2012 to 2018, not only was the contact injury rate for lower extremities higher during practices and games held on artificial turf, NFL players consistently experienced a much higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries on turf compared with natural surfaces.
“Specifically, players have a 28 percent higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries when playing on artificial turf. Of those non-contact injuries, players have a 32 percent higher rate of non-contact knee injuries on turf and a staggering 69 percent higher rate of non-contact foot/ankle injuries on turf compared to grass.
“Our occupation is dangerous enough, and the increased rate of lower extremity injuries linked to the field surface we are forced to play on is unacceptable. The NFLPA is advocating for teams to convert artificial practice and game fields to natural grass fields.”
One of those artificial fields in question is MetLife Stadium, which has seen a bevy of injuries this season.
Steelers’ right tackle Zach Banner suffered a torn ACL in Week 1 against the Giants, and running back James Conner also exited the game with an ankle injury. The following week, 49ers Nick Bosa and Solomon Thomas suffered injuries on the same field against the Jets. San Francisco defensive end Arik Armstead told the league to fix the “trash met life turf” after the game, and his coach Kyle Shanahan wasn’t thrilled either.
“That’s as many knee injuries and ankle stuff and people getting caught on the turf as I’ve even been a part of,” he told reporters. “I know our players talked about it the entire game, just how sticky the turf was. It was something our guys were concerned about right away.”
Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick also echoed his San Francisco counterparts.
“I am not a very big fan of artificial turf,” he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “There is no give to it at all. When we play on regular grass, the grass might shift or come up a little bit. If you put a whole lot of weight into the ground on artificial turf there is no give whatsoever. The only thing that’s going to give is your body.”
Tretter argued in the NFLPA statement that natural grass fields were possible everywhere — using the cold-weather Browns and Packers as outside examples, and Arizona and Las Vegas as indoors ones.
The league inspected the MetLife turf following Week 2 and said it met all protocols, though Tretter wants even those protocols to be overthrown.
“It’s true that NFL-NFLPA inspectors evaluate practice and game fields through the Clegg test, which measures the hardness of the surface,” he said. “The Clegg test, however, is extremely limited in its ability to tell us about the performance or safety of a field and is not nearly as comprehensive for what the modern game requires. Our union has raised this concern repeatedly over the past few years, and we believe it is now time for a complete overhaul.”