Millions of onlookers witnessed Los Angeles Rams star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. tear the ACL in his left knee in Super Bowl LVI. It was an unfortunate event to happen in the biggest game of his career when he had been on a roll, with 52 yards and a score on just two targets. Immediately after, several NFL players such as George Kittle began a Twitter campaign aimed at preventing such injuries from occurring as often as they do.
Their issue is with the artificial turf several NFL stadiums, like SoFi Stadium use.
According to Pennington Grass Seed, 90% of players would prefer to play on real grass as opposed to artificial turf. They also have some data suggesting turf causes more non-contact lower body injuries, including to the knees like we saw with OBJ.
They also add that the temperatures of turf can get up to 90 degrees warmer than other playing surfaces, which on a hot day having a hot field will only lead to more exhaustion.
During the 2021-22 season, 16 of the 32 NFL teams played on artificial turf surfaces.
Considering the support seen from George Kittle, Nick Bosa, and Nick Chubb, and likely several others, it’s probably time the NFL takes advice from their players in an effort to improve not only their safety, but also the product on the field. Having several stars go down with season-ending injuries doesn’t help the game. The NFL wants its most popular players playing the game, not rehabbing injuries on the sidelines.
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Will Odell Beckham Jr.’s injury cause the NFL to take action?
With so much perceived support to switch from turf to grass, why doesn’t the NFL make a change? Money.
If the NFL really wanted to, they could ensure each stadium avoids the use of turf. It wouldn’t be difficult to put a new clause in the rules and regulations, ensuring any new stadium that is built has to use a safe playing surface or one that has the players’ health and safety in mind.
For example, the Los Angeles Rams’ stadium just opened in 2020, yet they have turf. Same with AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, and U.S. Bank Stadium in Minnesota. Sure, all four of these arenas are indoor stadiums, but out in Vegas, Allegiant Stadium uses Bermuda grass instead.
Meanwhile, instead of discouraging the playing surface, the NFL is making a point to have the Super Bowl played at each of these new state-of-the-art facilities, which makes sense since they are glorious. But what about the players forced to play in the game? Shouldn’t their safety be accounted for as well?
Had Odell Beckham Jr. been playing on grass instead of turf, would he have to spend the next six months rehabbing his knee after surgery? Who knows.
The NFL can easily cover all costs associated with switching all NFL stadiums from turf to grass themselves instead of forcing each city or team to deal with the complication. If they truly care about their players, the league would have stopped using turf several seasons ago, but instead, it seems just as popular as ever. Just not among the players who actually have to deal with the stuff.