NFL fans had a lot to say after the NFLPA seemingly caught the league in a lie in relation to data on player injuries.
For many years now, countless NFL players and fans have called for the NFL to remove artificial surfaces and to only use real grass. It’s been widely suggested by several players that the artificial surfaces lead to a greater risk of non-contact injuries.
Back in November, the NFL shared data to ESPN which suggested that the rates of non-contact injuries are about the same for “lower extremities” on artificial turf and real grass.
Former Cleveland Browns center and current NFLPA President J.C. Tretter published an article regarding this matter on the NFLPA’s website on Wednesday. In his article, Tretter disputed the NFL’s claim about non-contact injury rates being similar for both artificial and real surfaces:
So, for nine years it was clear that grass fields were safer than turf. Then, in 2021, the rates became the closest they have ever been, but our union believed this was an anomaly. The NFL took the position that injury data from a single year would be definitive enough to publicly declare that our safety concerns about artificial surfaces was over.
Well, the latest injury data is now available and suspiciously, the NFL did not set up a media call about it…
In short, last year, the gap – much like the NFL’s credibility with players on this issue – was as wide as it has ever been, proving that (as the NFLPA suspected) 2021 was in fact an outlier. Now, 10 of the previous 11 years show the same exact thing — grass is a significantly safer surface than turf…
The NFL and team owners have the resources to fix these safety issues with fields, and it is inexplicable why there is such a failure to protect players on an issue that EVERYONE knows is a problem…
As much as the NFL wants to ignore the grass field issue, the data and their actions will continue to demonstrate their callous hypocrisy.”
So in short, Tretter was essentially accusing the NFL of lying and sharing misleading information to get their point across. And let’s just say folks on social media weren’t at all shocked about the NFL seemingly attempting to misinform its fans and players.
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14 of the 30 stadiums used by NFL teams use the artificial turf playing surface. The issue became a hot topic back in Week 3 of the 2020 season, when the San Francisco 49ers lost several key players to injury in a road game against the New York Giants. The Giants and Jets play their home games at MetLife Stadium, which uses artificial turf.
MetLife Stadium is set to use a new turf called FieldTurf. Though it’s not natural grass, the surface is expected to help reduce the amount of non-contact injuries.
