In the world of sports, few questions are as hotly debated as “Grass vs. Turf.” This question is especially discussed in the NFL because stadiums around the league are converting to artificial turf from grass fields. From commentators to athletes, everyone has a strong opinion of which is better, turf or grass.
From the years 2012 to 2018, the NFL association has been studying the difference between turf and grass fields and to their conclusion there is a 28% higher chance of getting injured on a non-contact play on turf then grass. They also found that you have a 32% higher chance of getting your knee injured on a non-contact play and even crazier your 69% more likely to have a foot injury on turf then on grass. I think with these stats it should be pretty obvious that we should get rid of turf. Even some famous football players hate playing on turf and some receivers have some stuff to say about it. The star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. went to social media to show his concerns about turf fields.
Beckham, being one of the most famous players in the NFL, actually tore his ACL, not once, but twice on a turf field. The first time he tore his ACL was in October of 2020 and the second time was in February of 2022 during the Superbowl where he was leading to be the MVP of the game. The NFL has 30 stadiums and half of them are turf. You would assume with the NFL trying to keep players safe and the fact that lots of star players have gone down due to turf injuries they would get rid of turf and they have yet to do so which needs to change.
Turf fields have a couple of reasons why they are not only unsafe for people but also unsafe for the environment. Most importantly, more people get injured on turf fields even though we already know that most people don’t know that having turf fields pollutes the air, the grass and the dirt outside of the stadium. Turf fields put microplastics in the air which is obviously bad for the people in the stadium to ingest but think about the players that are actually on the field ingesting and being exposed to all of the microplastics which over time can have a negative effect later in life. The chemicals really affect the sediment below the stadium and can affect the animals that ever enter the stadium but mainly the birds that fly above it.
Despite the many issues with turf fields, there are many reasons why the NFL wants to keep them and why some people favor them: The low maintenance and the fact that once you lay it down you don’t have to worry about watering it and giving it sun. NFL turf fields cost $1.5 million to put in and that is all you have to spend but when it comes to grass fields it costs around $2 million per year to maintain. They made turf fields to soften hits and make it safer when falling on the field. Despite this effort they actually do more damage to you then actually protect you. This might sound crazy but you are actually statistically able to play better on turf then grass due to the turf being a lot more flexible and it not changing during bad weather conditions.
With all that we know about turf and grass I think that it is actually crazy that some people actually want to keep turf fields. When people play a game for our entertainment and they are actually putting their bodies/lives on the line for our entertainment I think that if the NFL is doing everything they can to help player safety and then not getting rid of turf is kind of a bad thing. When every year the injuries to players are rising I think that they should see that the outlier is turf fields where most people get injured.
