(News4usonline) – The Philadelphia Eagles were the most dominant pass-rushing team in the National Football League (NFL) during the 2022 regular season. The Eagles recorded a league-high 70 sacks. Before the team reached the Super Bowl to play for the championship against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia had made 78 drops on quarterback sacks.
And yet, the Eagles did not tally a single official sack against Mahomes and wound up losing Super Bowl LVII, 38-35. There was some blame about the field’s playing conditions at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Philadelphia edge rusher Hasson Reddick was emphatic on this point, calling State Farm Stadium “the worst field that I’ve ever played on.”
After coming up with 16 sacks during the regular season, Reddick has reason to gripe. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, though, tried tempering the idea that the field’s playing surface only worked to one team’s advantage.
“We both had to play on that turf,” Sirianni said after Super Bowl LVII. “It’s not like we were playing on ice, and they were playing on grass. We all had to play on it. We all had to figure out our shoes. Sometimes, you do your best to figure out this playing surface as soon as you possibly can. Sometimes you have to change cleats in the middle of the game just because of what’s working for you. Same way as if you had to change a game plan or change of play, so it was just adjusting to a little bit of slippage that was going on in the field. That had nothing to do with anything, we just had to get used to it.”
For the record, the field at State Farm Stadium is grass. The controversy around the grass or turf field at State Farm Stadium during Superbowl LVII only served to magnify an issue that has been on the rise in the National Football League (NFL). The majority of players have a general dislike of AstroTurf and prefer to play on natural grass, not just as a general preference but for legitimate health concerns.
NFLPA President JC Tretter had this to say about the matter in an editorial.
“The data supports the anecdotes you’ll hear from me and other players: artificial turf is significantly harder on the body than grass. Based on NFL injury data collected from 2012 to 2018, not only was the contact injury rate for lower extremities higher during practices and games held on artificial turf, NFL players consistently experienced a much higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries on turf compared to natural surfaces.
Tretter goes on to say, “Specifically, players have a 28% higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries when playing on artificial turf. Of those non-contact injuries, players have a 32% higher rate of non-contact knee injuries on turf and a staggering 69% higher rate of non-contact foot/ankle injuries on turf compared to grass.”
AstroTurf is artificial grass that is made of nylon rubber fibers and was invented by James M. Faria and Robert T. Wright. The Philadelphia Eagles began to use the synthetic product when it shared using Franklin Field with the University of Pennsylvania. That was way back in 1969. However, artificial turf was first installed at the professional level when the Houston Astrodome, home to the Houston Astros, and later the Houston Oilers (1968), made the switch from grass in 1966.
According to a report by the Hofstra University Journalism Department, nearly half of NFL teams now use some form of artificial turf. Based on a culmination of 53 published studies between 1972 and 2020, the National Library of Medicine concluded that there is a higher rate of foot and ankle injuries on artificial turf.
Since its first installation, AstroTurf has leaked its way into more stadiums and has become the norm for most modern fields. Over the years, a trend became apparent with player disdain and injury regarding astroturf fields. Players at the top of their game would voice their dislike of astroturf.
In an interview with USA Today Aaron Rodgers said: “As much as I’ve enjoyed playing indoors over the years on turf, I do think it’s time to play on grass. I think you’d see less of these non-contact injuries.”
Seattle Seahawks coach also acknowledges that the turf is becoming an issue saying “we’ve got to do what’s safest for the players” in an ESPN interview.
Players have also taken to Twitter to make their voices known about how they feel about the issue.
Los Angeles Rams star wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who went down to a season-ending high ankle sprain injury during the 2022 season, didn’t mince words with his thoughts about the artificial turf versus grass battle.
“I believe that we — and all teams — should be playing on grass. This is an age-old issue, and I believe the time to address the problem is now! Let’s have the conversation.”
Former Houston Texans linebacker DeMeco Ryans once sued the team that he is currently the head coach of for million dollars because of a ruptured Achilles injury he suffered while playing on the home stadium’s surface. This was just the tip of the iceberg. Now, there’s a petition being launched to get all the NFL teams on board to replace artificial turf with grass.
Pennington Grass seed has started a petition that now has over 28 thousand signatures in order to try and have the NFL switch their stadiums back to all-natural grass.
Fourteen of the 32 active NFL teams still maintain a turf field. The direct correlation between the rise of noncontact and contact injury with the rise of using turf fields is one that can’t go unnoticed any longer. The players and coaches have taken their position. It is time for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to act.
Reporter Dennis J. Freeman contributed to this article
