Turf vs Grass

What causes there to be more knee injuries in NFL players when playing on artificial turf opposed to playing on natural grass? This topic has lingered around the football world in the United States for a long time now and is still producing limited answers on why this tends to occur. 

Knee injuries are influenced by a variety of circumstances, particularly football-related anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. The field conditions at the time of the injury, the kind of play, the player’s position and activity, the playing surfaces, and the coefficient of friction at the shoe-surface interface are a few of the most crucial factors. Reduced risk of this kind of noncontact injury may result from awareness of the role that these factors play in the occurrence of noncontact ACL injuries. According to research, about 18% of all football injuries are knee ligament injuries. Per NFL team had six game-related knee ligament injuries on average each year, according to Powell and Schootman. Injury rates and risk variables related to grass and Astroturf were discussed in their study. Despite the fact that they did not distinguish between contact and noncontact injuries, they emphasized the significance of the surface and the shoe-surface interaction as significant risk factors. Identifying and separating contact from non contact injuries is crucial for reducing injuries. Noncontact football-related injuries have not been included in many studies, and this is still a major cause for worry. A noncontact ACL damage may tragically end an athlete’s career even though “muscle pulls,” “ankle sprains,” and other non contact injuries like “turf burners” do not cause significant time loss.

Mike Florio, an American author, sportswriter and radio host, speaks on behalf of the NFL and how all teams in the league should be playing on real grass instead of “fake grass”. In the article he states, “It never should happen. Yes, today’s artificial surfaces are better than the cruel and unusual green cement on which tackle football was played for decades. But they’re not grass. They should be grass. All of them.” In the past, the NFL had only played on very poorly groomed fields that could be argued they were safer for the players than playing on artificial turf. Mike Florio goes on to say that any team owner who’s team doesn’t play on natural grass doesn’t care about their players’ safety. “Any owner who plays in a stadium that doesn’t use grass doesn’t care about protecting his or her players as much as they should. While much can’t be done to retrofit some of the stadiums with non-retractable roofs, every stadium that can convert to grass should, and all new stadiums must be built with grass fields, not fake ones.” Former NFL center, JC Tretter talks about the difficulties of playing on artificial turf compared to natural grass in the league. Tretter discusses his transition from college football to the big league, “As a rookie learning the ins and outs of being a professional football player, I remember the collective groan that my older teammates made whenever it was announced that we’d be practicing indoors on artificial turf instead of the usual outdoor grass field. I played almost exclusively on synthetic turf in college. Once I started experiencing both surfaces interchangeably, I began to understand exactly why my teammates disliked the practices on turf. Whenever I practiced on an artificial field surface, my joints felt noticeably stiffer the next day. The unforgiving nature of artificial turf compounds the grind on the body we already bear from playing a contact sport.” Artificial turf is composed of synthetic fibers made to mirror natural grass. The playing surface is subjected to extraordinarily high levels of stress and rotation by professional football players. The grass will finally give way, which frequently causes the cleat to loosen before reaching an unsafe load. Because there is less give in synthetic surfaces, our knees, ankles, and feet absorb more impact, increasing the likelihood of damage.

One of the biggest differences between artificial turf and natural grass is the level of care. Natural grass can last a long time but it takes an immense amount of maintenance to keep the field in perfect condition. This also means that it is going to be way more costly to the NFL teams to make sure the grass is kept up. Artificial turf on the other hand is way less expensive and a lot easier to maintain. When ChemGrass was installed at the Houston Astrodome to replace the deteriorating grass in the first dome stadium in the middle of the 1960s, the first artificial turf-style field was created. The argument between natural grass and turf playing surfaces started when the grass was later renamed as AstroTurf. The cost difference between synthetic turf and grass fields is one of the strongest arguments in favor of its deployment. In contrast to grass fields, turf usually costs money up front and requires little to no upkeep over its lifetime.

In perspective, the National Football League may not realize the additional costs going to treating these knee injuries. Through players’ eyes there definitely is frustration because of the intimidation of cost for upkeep on the natural grass fields. In the long run there might be correlations between the cost to maintain the natural grass fields and the costs associated with the various treatments for the knee injuries suffered in the NFL. As a viewer and fan of the NFL, it pains to see these players go through agonizing ACL tears and ruptures just because of the main focus in the league of price in maintaining the natural grass fields. This problem with artificial turf has been floating around the league ever since Astroturf was founded to be the main culprit of knee injuries in NFL players. The NFL needs to take care of their players instead of eyeing in on the only important idea in money.

References

Florio, M. (2022, February 19). All fields should be real grass, not fake grass. ProFootballTalk. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/02/19/all-fields-should-be-real-grass-not-fake-grass/

For better health, safety of athletes which playing surface is best? (2019, June 14). Global Sport Matters. https://globalsportmatters.com/health/2019/06/14/for-better-health-safety-of-athletes-which-playing-surface-is-best/

Scranton PE, Whitesel JP, Powell JW, et al. A Review of Selected Noncontact Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries in the National Football League. Foot & Ankle International. 1997;18(12):772-776. doi:10.1177/107110079701801204

Tretter, J. (n.d.). Only Natural Grass Can Level The NFL’s Playing Field. NFL Players Association. https://nflpa.com/posts/only-natural-grass-can-level-the-nfls-playing-field