 Photo credit: Whole Hog Sports EXAMPLE: Arkansas Razorbacks The Razorbacks switched back to grass in 2019 after 10 years playing on synthetic. Two things to note -
July 21, 2019 by Matt Jones - Whole Hog Sports FAYETTEVILLE — Natural grass will return to the field at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium within a few weeks. The University of Arkansas football team will play home games on a natural surface this fall for the first time since 2008 — the team’s first season under then-head coach Bobby Petrino, who had artificial turf installed in 2009 at a cost of $1.1 million. *Petrino said the synthetic surface was needed to withstand the wear and tear of his practices. Petrino preferred to have most of his practices inside the stadium, and the grass field showed some signs of overuse by the end of 2008. Ten years after Petrino lobbied for a new field in his first season, another new Arkansas head coach, Chad Morris, said he preferred natural grass, citing his experience coaching Texas high school teams. The change could not be made in time for Morris’ inaugural season because construction to the stadium’s north side wasn’t completed until August. With a crane sitting inside the stadium, the turf was peeled back roughly 40 yards most of last year, then laid back down shortly before the 2018 season opener against Eastern Illinois. Arkansas began tearing out the turf field in April and expects to have real grass in the stadium by early August. The estimated cost to switch the field back to grass is $963,000. Read the full article You only have to go back to grass once. This costs not much more than a synthetic field replacement and less than a new synthetic field, which unlike grass needs repeated costly removal, disposal and replacement every 8-10 years on average. Summary and notes by Safe Healthy Playing Fields, Inc.  Kickers are the only ones who prefer artificial surfaces February 9, 2024 By Turf & Rec
The head of the NFL players’ association says 92 per cent of all league players prefer to play on natural grass surfaces, based on a survey of union members. Six per cent noted they were indifferent between natural grass and artificial turf, while the remaining two per cent said they prefer synthetic turf. The latter group were kickers. Read the article  The NFLPA stance on artificial turf has not changed.(AP Photo/Bryan Woolston) By Manuel Gómez | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
The issue over artificial turf in isn’t going anywhere. On Thursday, a joint committee assembled by the NFL and the NFLPA released its findings that lower-body injuries occurred at about the same rate on turf fields as on grass fields during 2023. Lower-body injuries that occur without contact were virtually the same on turf as it was on grass. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem, the NFLPA said In a statement released to ESPN. The union says it remains steadfast in pushing for the removal of artificial turf. “As we have said repeatedly, injury data in a one-year time capsule does not account for what we have known since we started tracking these injuries: that a well-maintained, consistent grass surface is still simply safer for players than any synthetic field,” the statement said. “The story of last year’s injury data is that, unfortunately, injury rates on grass have increased from last year. The data cannot, however, account for what players have shared with the NFL for years: that we feel much worse after playing on synthetic surfaces and overwhelmingly prefer consistent, high-quality grass fields. “This year’s injury data also does not explain how quick they are to flip NFL stadium surfaces from bad synthetic to better grass for international soccer friendlies and tournaments.”  Mary Whitfill Roeloffs
Forbes Staff Updated Jan 2, 2024, 08:47am EST The Miami Dolphins suffered another major loss with the ACL tear of pass-rusher Bradley Chubb in a game against the Baltimore Ravens on New Year's Eve, adding Chubb to a long list of others who’ve suffered destructive lower-body injuries this season amid debate over the safety of playing on grass versus turf. Of this year's 24 major leg injuries so far, 13 have occurred on a turf or partially turf field. Injuries have most commonly happened this season on M&T Bank Stadium's grass field, U.S. Bank Stadium's turf and at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, which uses turf for NFL games. Rodgers and Tannehill were hurt on turf, Nick Chubb and Diggs were injured on grass. Lambeau Field in Green Bay, where Cousins was injured, has a hybrid turf mix of synthetic and natural grass.  Mary Whitfill Roeloffs
Forbes Staff Nov 27, 2023, 09:15am EST The Achilles tear of Miami linebacker Jaelan Phillips on Black Friday has reignited the debate over the safety of playing on artificial turf as Phillips joins a long list of others who’ve suffered destructive lower-body injuries this season and players demand change to what they say are unnecessarily dangerous fields. Read the full timeline here. Why worries about forever chemicals and injuries might push the NFL to ditch artificial turf9/21/2023
 For the first time, the NFLPA says it's concerned about risks from the PFAS chemicals used to make the plastic playing fields. by David Gambacorta, Barbara Laker, and Marcus Hayes Published Sep. 19, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET Link to the subscriber only content  'How many more players have to get hurt on artificial turf?' September 12, 2023 By Turf & Rec A game-ending ankle injury to New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers has renewed debate over the safety of artificial turf. Rodgers appeared to have caught his foot in the artificial turf and left the game afterwards. David Bakhtiari, a former teammate of Rodgers with the Green Bay Packers, posted on social media, “How many more players have to get hurt on artificial turf? You care more about soccer players than us.” Bakhtiari’s reference was to stadiums replacing artificial turf with natural grass for the coming World Cup of soccer. He suggested all National Football League stadiums replace artificial turf with natural grass to cut back on further player injuries. Read the article by JC Tretter 4/19/23 For more than a decade, players have been speaking out about their strong preference to work on natural grass over synthetic playing surfaces. Players have shared stories about how their bodies feel after playing on turf compared to grass, and the injury data for nearly a decade supports those anecdotes. However, in early November of last year, there was a large media offensive by the NFL to pushback against the historical data and players’ experiences. The following slide was distributed to the media, and NFL staff and owners were aggressive in their claims that the fight over which is safer, grass or turf, was no longer an issue.  At that time, on a conference call with media members, the NFL’s Jeff Miller stated that “the questions have changed,” referencing questions about which field surface is safer, grass or turf. We as a union believe that knowledge is power, and I wanted to take the time to share additional injury data that can help give a broader view of the often-discussed issue. Here’s what the injury data has looked like over the past decade, using a zoomed-out version of the graph that was shared with ESPN last year:  What this graph shows is that for six consecutive years, injury rates on synthetic surfaces were far higher than on natural surfaces. Read the full article |
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