World Cup insistence on grass becomes key player point in turf debate

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Players want grass in all venues. Various NFL stadiums use artificial turf. The debate has not gotten much traction, yet.

As the U.S.-hosted 2026 World Cup approaches and as more people realize that stadiums like AT&T in Dallas and SoFi in L.A. will convert to grass fields for the soccer competition, more will ask why, if that can be done for soccer, it can’t be done for football?

When push comes to shove, sources connected to The Shield will point out (as they already are) that the World Cup surfaces will be a hybrid of grass and synthetic turf.

Fine, then why don’t the stadiums that currently use turf only permanently use the FIFA-required grass/synthetic hybrid for football, too?

Players who want all grass would surely settle for a grass/fake blend than all fake. Why not just keep the World Cup surface at AT&T Stadium and at SoFi Stadium?

The broader point is that, although owners like Jerry Jones and Stan Kroenke won’t change surfaces because football players prefer grass, they’ll bend over backward when the soccer authority responsible for the World Cup demands grass, or at least a grass/turf hybrid.

The recent feature on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel hammers the point home. Grass is far safer than turf. Football players want to play on grass. Why in the hell won’t NFL owners provide them with grass, or at least a grass/turf hybrid?

As one source within the NFL bubble who believes in grass fields recently told PFT, the NFL will warp and twist statistics in order to preserve the status quo. The league doesn’t want to force owners to incur the expense of installing and maintaining grass — especially in venues where a significant re-engineering of the building would be necessary to permit it.

And so the NFL will continue to ignore the noise and hold the line and force players to deal with the hazards of artificial turf, even as more and more evidence surfaces regarding the relative safety, both as to injuries and overall wear and tear, of playing on a softer, more forgiving surface.

Put simply, it’s a problem the NFL won’t solve because the NFL refuses to acknowledge that there’s even a problem. The willingness of some owners to swap out turf-only fields for the World Cup will hopefully get so many people to recognize the problem that the league will have no choice but to finally concede that a problem exists.

22 responses to “World Cup insistence on grass becomes key player point in turf debate

  1. Jerry Jones and Stan Kroenke don’t give a dam about the safety of NFL players. Both Jones and Kroenke want the public relations and notoriety of hoisting a world cup so that Both can continue to be a member of the 1% club.

  2. In Buffalo, for example, the current stadium is owned by the County. It would be their call. Good luck getting them to put in grass and paying for constant maintenance.
    Even if the Pegulas would foot the bill, after a few summer concerts, they would probably need to re-sod the whole thing before the Bills even set foot on it. I imagine they would tire of that quickly.
    These days people want to get as much use from their stadiums as possible. Grass makes that impractical.

  3. When FIFA cares more about its players than the NFL does their’s, you know that you’ve achieved something spectacular.
    And not in a good way…

  4. Because FIFA has power to say no to Jones & Kroenke and the players don’t (or won’t use it)

  5. I still don’t know why this isn’t high on the NFLPA’s list. Their #1 goal is supposed to be to protect their members

  6. Captain obvious here.. Green Bay is considered the premiere grass field, which they maintain in pristine condition during cold climate weather – to the nay sayers…

    Why doesn’t the nflpa not partner with nfl and assume 50:50 cost sharing and maintaining.

    They can still use the stadiums for concerts and other non football events.

  7. David Scheck says:
    May 26, 2023 at 5:22 pm
    I still don’t know why this isn’t high on the NFLPA’s list. Their #1 goal is supposed to be to protect their members
    ————————
    CBA negotiations are between shortsighted, greedy owners and a union whose members are also shortsighted and greedy. The players agreed to games 17 and 18 (which will end up shortening careers for some) for what was, given the magnitude of the concession, peanuts. Thursday games on three days’ rest/recovery? The NFLPA has never fought hard against it because of the increased revenue. Field conditions? The union will complain (both about synthetic surfaces and poor grass & dirt/mud fields), but it’s not something the union is willing to have a strike or lockout over, so it’s an issue that’s left entirely in ownership’s hands.

  8. The NFL warps and twists statistics to show whatever they want the ‘data’ to prove. After all, all ‘data’ can be proven to be ‘whatever you want proven’ assuming that the figures being input to ‘prove’ the data are formulated coreectly.

    My only issue with this article is that you ‘dropped it’ at 4:35 pm on a Friday prior to a long holiday weekend. The ‘data’ shows that many of your readers will, therfore, not see it – which is a shame !!

  9. If only PFT will post this….. The NFL IS NOT A LEAGUE!! It is an informal agreement by billionaires that the teams they own will play each other. There is NO governing body like any other sport in the world, hence the owners do what they want when they want! Every other sport (for the most part) has an internationally recognized governing body. The sooner you sheeple realize that the sooner the NFL goes away!
    I still can’t believe that all you nfl tough guys haven’t converted to watching rugby by now! Way better, tougher and NO COMMERCIALS UNTIL HALFTIME! Watch rugby

  10. It’s pretty pathetic that they are willing to pay the cost so they can host soccer teams. But when it comes to their own team safety, it’s just really not worth it I guess

  11. The turf injuries will be offset by all the injuries that won’t happen because of the new kickoff rules so it’s a wash. Nothing to see here, all is well in NFL land.

  12. ymous135 says:
    May 26, 2023 at 5:54 pm
    Captain obvious here.. Green Bay is considered the premiere grass field, which they maintain in pristine condition during cold climate weather – to the nay sayers…

    Why doesn’t the nflpa not partner with nfl and assume 50:50 cost sharing and maintaining.

    They can still use the stadiums for concerts and other non football events.

    If the PA, which is funded by the players, agree to split the cost of field maintenance and it needs be replaced after a concert do they get a cut of the concert revenue then also? If the PA is paying for maintenance then there should be no other events all season which would add to costs, im sure the owners would go for that

  13. Is there some sort of published record of NFL game injuries, type of injury, what surface the injury occurred on, and was the surface the primary reason for the injury?

  14. Grass is far better to play on for both football and soccer. Less of a chance of injury and honestly to me looks more visually appealing anyway.

  15. mrba4775 says:
    May 26, 2023 at 4:44 pm

    Jerry Jones and Stan Kroenke don’t give a dam about the safety of NFL players.
    ———

    You don’t understand the issue. The NFL is concerned about “Player Safety” in the sense of concussions, life-altering, and fatal injuries. Torn ligaments, ruptured tendons, orthopedic injuries, and broken bones happen even under ideal conditions and are viewed as part of a continuum starting with bruised thighs and skinned elbows. It’s what happens in a collision sport. They are not viewed as “safety issues”.

  16. Players could strike for this and win. The NFL can use this as a bargaining chip in next CBA negotiations

  17. anonymous135 says:
    May 26, 2023 at 5:54 pm

    Captain obvious here.. Green Bay is considered the premiere grass field, which they maintain in pristine condition during cold climate weather – to the nay sayers…
    ———–

    Nay, I say. Green Bay uses a combination turf-grass field. Approximately 3% of the surface is synthetic fibers.

  18. The NFL is a multi-billion dollar a year business. Let’s do some simple math. 32 teams, 30 stadiums, so if it cost 1 billion dollars a year per stadium to install and maintain grass field that’s 30 billion dollars per year. That’s less than half of Roger Goodell’s yearly salary based on the figures from the last two years. Who knows what his new contract/extension will be. Currently Goodell makes 5 times more than any other pro sport commissioner. There is absolutely no reason that the NFL cannot afford to have stadiums with grass. Hell, they could build each team a new stadium every 10 years if they wanted to.

  19. Jerry wants to keep turf because it offers him the ability to modify the field for concerts, motorcross, Garth and Taylor Swift shows on a whim.

    Lambau Field doesn’t have those demands. This is all about stadium revenue outside of the NFL.

  20. My team’s field is better than your team’ field. Therefore: my team’s owner is better than your team’s owner

  21. I would say the big difference between soccer and football on turf is a football game looks the same when you are watching whether it’s on turf or grass. A soccer game where the ball is in contact with the surface the majority of the time is different as the ball doesn’t bounce the same on turf. The other big difference is no big name soccer clubs in Europe use turf, it’s mainly used by smaller clubs where they can cut groundskeeping costs and a lot of the time hire it out for community use. Either way not disagreeing with the injury risk which is undoubtedly higher on turf.

  22. You do all know that grass is actually an invasive species to the US and was never supposed to be here at all…perhaps the NFL is just trying to do its part to fight off this menace that’s trying to take over our land! Or they’re just cheap….

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