MetLife Stadium, the home of the New York Giants and Jets, installed a new playing surface ahead of the 2023 season — choosing a new version of FieldTurf rather than a complete switch over to grass.
The stadium, which hosts twice as many regular-season games as most stadiums around the league due to the dual tenants, drew criticism in recent years for the increasing number of noncontact injuries.
Five San Francisco 49ers players came away with lower-body injuries in one game against the Jets during the 2020 season. Baltimore Ravens cornerback Kyle Fuller was lost for the season after a Week 1 ACL tear in a game against the Jets, leading Ravens coach John Harbaugh to join the chorus of those saying it wasn’t a safe surface.
Former Giants captain Julian Love, a safety who signed with the Seattle Seahawks in free agency this offseason, said last season that “the stats have shown we are on one of the worst fields in the league.”
Giants owner John Mara told reporters that the new turf — FieldTurf Core, a multilayer, dual-polymer monofilament fiber — was installed at both the stadium and the Giants’ practice facility. FieldTurf Core also was installed at the Detroit Lions’ Ford Field earlier this year.
“Installation of the new FieldTurf CORE system reinforces the commitment we have to providing the best playing surface for our teams,” president and CEO of MetLife Stadium Ron VanDeVeen said Thursday in a statement. “The research that FieldTurf has put into the heavyweight infill design for this new field system will equip MetLife Stadium with one of the premier surfaces in the league.”
SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., also is home to two NFL teams, the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. That venue uses Matrix Turf, which is also an artificial surface.
–Field Level Media