Fake grass, real injuries? Dissecting the NFL’s artificial turf debate
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Astronomical Bowl LVIII will seemingly be played on a pure grass topic in an indoor stadium in Las Vegas on February 11, 2024. How manufacture you relief a grass topic brilliant in this kind of antagonistic rising ambiance like the Nevada desolate tract?
The resolution: You don’t. By the halt of the customary NFL season, paint became frail to conceal the reality that easiest just a few scant patches of grass remained in Allegiant Stadium, house to the Las Vegas Raiders. Right away after the Raiders’ remaining sport on January 7, 2024, the topic crew ripped up the remaining grass, put in California-grown sod over three days, and started the slack strategy of conserving the grass alive long sufficient for the spacious sport.
Herculean efforts to put collectively a brilliant pure grass topic for 2024’s Astronomical Bowl LVIII are severely questionable when one realizes that Allegiant Stadium also has an man made turf taking half in floor accessible (frail by UNLV Soccer). Why don’t groups in antagonistic environments change to extra worthy man made turf, which is designed to beat the a huge need of limitations of pure grass fields?
The resolution lies in a debate over the safety of synthetic taking half in surfaces. Whereas man made turf producers tout study that their products lead to fewer accidents, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) claims it raises damage threat and is advocating for its spend to be abolished in the NFL. Let’s explore some key arguments of this debate, which continues to take headlines with each high-profile NFL damage.
Astronomical Bowl gridirons
Strain for NFL topic managers is severely high following the embarrassingly unpleasant topic prerequisites of remaining year’s Astronomical Bowl. Astronomical Bowl LVII took order at Pronounce Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona—one other pure grass topic in the desolate tract (with a retractable roof, closed at night time to offer protection to the grass). No topic two years of preparation and an $800,000 investment, the grass topic became a anguish, as avid gamers struggled to get footing on its slippery floor.
Outdated skool NFL groundskeeper George Toma attributed the mess to woefully gruesome topic preparation. Players also complained regarding the slipping challenge the old time the Astronomical Bowl became hosted at the pure grass topic in Pronounce Farm Stadium eight years prior for Astronomical Bowl XLIX in 2015. That year, the unpleasant traction became blamed on the inexperienced paint frail on the grass.
For viewpoint, some of the most realistic doubtless sports activities topic managers in the nation oversee topic preparations for the Astronomical Bowl. Nonetheless, asserting pure grass in desolate tract prerequisites is so gruesome (severely when the grass is once in a while indoors) that even the most realistic doubtless can mess it up.
None of these points existed when the Astronomical Bowl became remaining played on man made turf. Astronomical Bowl LVI in 2022 became held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, house to each the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers. No longer easiest did the man made turf stand as much as double the workload for the length of the customary season (internet internet hosting house video games for the LA Rams and the LA Chargers), alternatively it also withstood a busy playoff season. The man made turf topic at SoFi Stadium hosted NFL video games thru the customary season and proper as much as the remaining playoff sport when the LA Rams beat the San Francisco 49ers. Two weeks later, the Rams ended up winning Astronomical Bowl LVI on the particular connected floor.
Whereas turf avoids the durability points viewed with grass surfaces, avid gamers enjoy frequent issues about its security—a most up-to-date pollby the NFLPA reported 92 p.c of avid gamers liked grass.
