NFL must address injuries caused by artificial surfaces

By: Wyatt Ridgely

Odell Beckham, Jr. tore his ACL in Super Bowl LVI.

Sterling Shepard tore his ACL while running a route. 

James Robinson tore his Achilles Tendon taking one step, and it practically ended his career. 

Jerry Jeudy and Aaron Rodgers have also suffered serious injuries on relatively normal plays. 

Did I mention these injuries all came on artificial surfaces?

The NFL has claimed their fields are safe, but it is clear the surfaces have caused significant risks to players performing their jobs. According to the NFLPA in a study in 2021, artificial fields can cause a 70 percent increase of injuries.

Players get hurt, it's part of the game. But shouldn’t the NFL prevent injuries to their best players when the NFL has already made efforts to make the game safer? When it comes to field surfaces that has not come to fruition. 

Fields like Metlife Stadium and AT&T Stadium have seen significant injuries towards players while running and during action. Trusted players, such as Jason Kelce, have voiced their displeasure with the Metlife Stadium turf.

"Just get rid of the turf," said Kelce, a former center for the Philadelphia Eagles during an episode of the podcast New Heights. "We need to get rid of turf altogether, and I don't want to hear 'It's an indoor stadium'. They make UV lights, you can grow grass inside. Just stop it, we went through this with astro turf back in the day and it ruined guys' careers.”

It is not just Kelce speaking out about unsafe playing conditions. 

Dalton Schultz, a Tight End for the Houston Texans, said, “We know the data - our union and the league agree that we should eliminate slit film turf. The NFL isn’t willing to mandate this change, so we as players are going to keep talking about this issue until it changes.”

Schultz and Kelce, along with many others, are in agreement that teams should change their fields to grass but it seems the NFL is hesitant to enforce the players' wishes. 

And why won’t the NFL cave to the players' requests? It has to do with one thing: money. 

According to the NFLPA, it would take around $10 million to fully convert all fields from dangerous turf. It’s a number that seems fairly low considering the NFL rakes in billions of dollars in revenue each year, suggesting that if the players’ association truly cared about its players they would be pushing harder for this ban. 

However, owners and executives are hesitant to make the switch citing costs would go through the roof. For many teams it is unrealistic to have natural grass fields. Fields such as the one housed inside The New Orleans Superdome can’t receive natural light making it tough to grow natural grass. 

Obviously the Saints would have to pay millions of dollars to upkeep a natural grass field, a prime example why it is hard to fully switch all fields to turf. 

This is where the NFL needs to step in and step up. 

If the NFL is unwilling to make changes for its players, then maybe it needs to seriously consider another important asset: its fans. While sports betting is nothing new, the sheer amount of money moved by placing bets and through fantasy leagues is mind boggling: 30 million people play fantasy football, and $323 billion is spent on betting across sports, providing the U.S almost $5 billion in tax revenue. It is obvious that the NFL wants a share of this revenue. If they want to maximize their profits, then they should want to keep players healthy and on the field.

Turf and playing surface should not be a reason the NFL doesn’t have players in games. The only reason players should be getting hurt is through hard contact which makes the game more enjoyable and fun to watch.

Players getting hurt is natural and part of the game. But it should not be natural to see players get injured in ways that could be prevented.