Joint NFL/NFLPA committee seemingly ends turf vs. grass debate for now

Data collected from a joint committee made up of individuals from the NFL and NFL Players Association seemingly put to bed the "turf-versus-grass surfaces" debate that arises each season for at least another year. 

According to Kevin Seifert and Dan Graziano of ESPN, the committee found that instances of noncontact lower-body injuries this past regular season "was nearly the same on synthetic and natural turf." 

NFL owners are routinely blasted by players and media members alike for saving money by utilizing synthetic turf playing surfaces at stadiums instead of paying to maintain grass fields throughout campaigns. It's widely thought that an overwhelming majority of players prefer grass over turf, as noncontact injuries such as torn ACLs are seemingly more often linked with surfaces found at venues such as MetLife Stadium (home of the New York Giants and New York Jets). 

"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 NFLPA said in a statement shared by ESPN. "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." 

That statement also noted that team owners often flip stadium surfaces "from bad synthetic to better grass for international soccer friendlies and tournaments." Back in December, Alex Silverman of Sports Business Journal pointed out that "several stadiums" in the United States must install temporary natural-grass fields to host games related to the upcoming Copa América held this summer. 

In May 2023, Pro Football Talk mentioned that "one source within the NFL bubble who believes in grass fields" said at that time that "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." That same source told PFT that the league would eventually "warp and twist statistics in order to preserve the status quo." 

In short, logic suggests league owners who have already embraced turf over grass now have the ammunition they need to avoid making expensive changes to playing surfaces. Time will tell how that will affect their players as preseason football games get underway this coming August.