For years, NFL players have called the league out over the artificial turf.
Players claim artificial turf often leads to injury, to which the league claims there’s not any significant uptick or difference between turf and actual grass.
Now, a report by the NFLPA claims that the NFL selectively released injury data from 2021 only, and that year injuries were similar on both surfaces.
The NFLPA says injury rates are significantly higher on artificial turf than on grass, and that the NFL misleadingly released incomplete data last year in an effort to say otherwise.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 20, 2023
However, in every other season, injury rates were significantly higher on turf.
Unsurprisingly, this led to multiple reactions on social media, with fans ripping the NFL for allegedly handpicking the information they released about this matter.
This surprises no one
— JR Buckeye 🌰🅾️⭕️ (@itsJRBuckeye) April 20, 2023
$10B business doesn’t want to spend a few million dollars on maintaining grass fields to ensure a safer experience for its workforce
Ridiculous
— NR_Garrett (@NR_Garrett) April 20, 2023
I’m really surprised they don’t pull examples from European football fields … free data amd results are already there 🤷♂️
— Alex (@dezkuma) April 20, 2023
In other news, water is wet.
— Nick 〽assary (@itsmazzledazzle) April 20, 2023
Cheap NFL Team Owners!
— The Seattle Seahawks Fan (@HawksInHouston) April 20, 2023
The report also claims that injury rates were at an all-time high in 2022 when playing on turf, putting the league on blast for not publishing those reports.
NFLPA president JC Tretter claims that players can no longer trust the league when discussing this matter, stating that the NFL has been purposely misleading about the player’s safety.
Players have advocated for using grass only in stadiums.
The NFLPA seconds that notion, but they’ve struggled to make the league take serious action to move away from the turf.
Ironically, the Tennessee Titans will do the exact opposite, as they announced that they replaced their grass with artificial turf starting in the 2023 season.
Hopefully, the NFLPA will be able to convince the league to comply with the players’ demands, as they’ve made great strides in putting the players’ safety first in terms of concussions, so they should take that same approach with their knees and ankles.
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