After the NFL embraced a form of artificial turf that looks more like grass, communities throughout the country began raising the money necessary to install one of their own fields full of thousands of green plastic blades and millions of small rubber pellets. Amid the ongoing debate regarding the safety of modern turf fields from the perspective of NFL players, HBO will be taking a closer look at the field-safety issue from the perspective of high-school football.
It’s one of the topics for the next episode of the always-excellent Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, in a feature reported by Andrea Kremer and produced by Jake Rosenwasser.
It will be interesting to hear what has been uncovered regarding the safety of fake grass for young football players -- especially since the league prides itself on the trickle-down of developments in the NFL to lower levels of the sport.
If Real Sports has concluded that artificial turf presents unacceptable health risks for high-school players, perhaps the NFL will take even more seriously the wisdom of switching to all grass fields.
The new episode debuts on Tuesday, May 23 at 10:00 p.m. ET.