{"id":8420,"date":"2023-09-14T01:46:14","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T01:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/14\/aaron-rodgers-season-ending-injury-highlights-controversy-over-artificial-turf-as-playing-surface-in-nfl\/"},"modified":"2023-09-14T01:46:14","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T01:46:14","slug":"aaron-rodgers-season-ending-injury-highlights-controversy-over-artificial-turf-as-playing-surface-in-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/14\/aaron-rodgers-season-ending-injury-highlights-controversy-over-artificial-turf-as-playing-surface-in-nfl\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Rodgers\u2019 season-ending injury highlights controversy over artificial turf as playing surface in NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      For New York Jets fans, it was a feeling of sadness, despondency and familiar memories; a star quarterback injures his Achilles tendon in the first game of the season for a team that has Super Bowl aspirations.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      While Vinny Testaverde\u2019s 1999 season-ending injury hurt, for a team with realistic dreams of lifting a first Super Bowl title since 1968, Aaron Rodgers\u2019 complete tear of his left Achilles felt like being punched in a still sore gut yet again.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      For many neutrals, it was a feeling of disappointment at seeing an NFL great being ruled out until September next year, if he decides to return at all.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      But for some of Rodgers\u2019 fellow NFL players, the reaction to the 39-year-old\u2019s season-ending injury was more visceral.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      Watching one of their ranks be so cruelly struck down just four plays into a debut season with a new team, especially with so much excitement around the Jets, was gut-wrenching, and criticism has begun to rain down on league officials in an ongoing debate about playing on artificial turf rather than grass.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      The most vociferous of those calls came from Rodgers\u2019 former Green Bay Packers teammate and close friend David Bakhtiari who published a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, suggesting that the artificial turf used at MetLife Stadium \u2013 the Jets home stadium where Rodgers sustained the injury \u2013 played some role in the four-time MVP\u2019s Achilles tear.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cCongrats [NFL]. How many more players have to get hurt on ARTIFICIAL TURF??!\u201d the five-time All-Pro left tackle posted. \u201cYou care more about soccer players than us.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cYou plan to remove all artificial turf for the World Cup coming up. So clearly it\u2019s feasible. I\u2019m sick of this..Do better!\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      In another post, Bakhtiari said: \u201cCan we put an end to this sh*t already.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      Although six MLS teams play their home matches on artificial turf, all matches at the 2026 World Cup will be played on natural grass. In the NFL, 17 of the 32 NFL franchises play on an artificial surface of one form or another.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      Bakhtiari\u2019s calls were echoed by his fellow long-time Packers teammate and now Jets wide receiver Randall Cobb.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cWe wanted the NFL to protect the players with grass fields, but the NFL is more worried about making money,\u201d Cobb told reporters after the Jets\u2019 win over the Bills, per The Athletic.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cProfit over people, it\u2019s always been the case. I\u2019ve never been a fan of turf. That\u2019s my stance.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      In an ESPN interview on Wednesday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league would rely on science to figure out the turf debate.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cThat\u2019s where we make decisions on the basis of science, not because I see an injury that I don\u2019t like. Ultimately, I want our experts to come back and give it to us,\u201d he said.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cWhen you look at the turf, you\u2019ve also got to look at the cleats, and there are a lot of factors and it\u2019s a complex issue.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      After the game on Monday, Jets head coach Robert Saleh downplayed speculation about the role the new turf field at MetLife Stadium played in Rodgers tearing his left Achilles tendon.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cIf it was a non-contact injury, I think that\u2019d be something to discuss obviously, but that was kind of a forcible \u2013 I think that was trauma induced,\u201d Saleh told reporters on Tuesday, though he added: \u201cI do know the players prefer grass and there\u2019s a lot invested in those young men.\u201d  <\/p>\n<div class=\"gallery-inline gallery--hidden\">\n<div class=\"gallery-inline__main\">\n<div class=\"gallery-inline__container\">\n<div class=\"gallery-inline__slides\">                                                                                                                                <\/div>\n<p>        <button class=\"gallery-inline__prev-overlay\"><\/button>        <button class=\"gallery-inline__next-overlay\"><\/button>      <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h5 class=\"gallery-inline__headline\">The best photos from the 2023 NFL season<\/h5>\n<div class=\"gallery-inline__counter\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-inline__controls\">        <button class=\"gallery-inline__prev\">          Prev                  <\/button>        <button class=\"gallery-inline__next\">          Next                  <\/button>      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"subheader\">    Real or artificial<\/h2>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      Synthetic turf was first introduced in the mid 1960s when the Houston Astrodome, known as the \u201cEighth Wonder of the World,\u201d was opened as the home to the Houston Oilers.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      Because it was cheaper and required less upkeep than grass, synthetic turf became popular across the league in the 1970s and 80s. The springier surface also allowed for faster, more explosive levels of action.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      However, a desire to shift away from artificial turf to natural grass has been advocated by the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), whose president, JC Tretter, wrote in April: \u201cFor more than a decade, players have been speaking out about their strong preference to work on natural grass over synthetic playing surfaces.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cPlayers have shared stories about how their bodies feel after playing on turf compared to grass, and the injury data for nearly a decade supports those anecdotes.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      In the article, the NFLPA referenced a \u201clarge media offensive\u201d by the NFL to \u201cpush back against the historical data and players\u2019 experiences\u201d on artificial turf.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      Tretter highlighted analysis shared by the NFL and collated by IQVIA \u2013 a third-party company that provides results to the league, the NFLPA and medical and football committees \u2013 indicating that injury rates between the two surfaces had gotten better from 2018 to 2021.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      However, he argued, looking at data further back showed injury rates on synthetic surfaces were higher than on natural surfaces.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      In 2021, the difference between the number of injuries sustained on the two surfaces was significantly smaller than previous years. However, the NFLPA president believes that single year is an anomaly and that there is a need for change.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      Tretter also cited a study published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine in 2018 that showed higher rates of lower body injuries sustained on artificial turf than on grass.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      In the study, injuries were studied between 2012 and 2016 and it found that play on synthetic turf resulted in a 16% increase in lower extremity injuries per play than that on natural turf.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cInstead of following the long-term data (which is clear on this issue), listening to players and making the game safer, the NFL used an outlier year to engage in a PR campaign to convince everyone that the problem doesn\u2019t actually exist,\u201d the former Packers and Cleveland Browns center said.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      Tretter concluded: \u201cThe 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.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cIt makes absolutely no sense for European soccer clubs to visit the US every year \u2026 and play exhibition games at NFL stadiums on high-quality natural grass while NFL players are subjected to greater risk on artificial surfaces.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cAnd it is absolutely appalling that owners are more willing to provide safe fields for soccer players than for the football players who are the primary workers on those fields \u2013 and who, in many cases, helped pay for the stadiums where those fields lay.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cAs much as the NFL wants to ignore the grass field issue, the data and their actions will continue to demonstrate their callous hypocrisy.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      At a virtual news conference on Tuesday, Jeff Miller \u2013 NFL executive vice president of communications, public affairs &amp; policy and health &amp; safety \u2013 said there was no difference in rates of Achilles injuries between natural grass and synthetic surfaces dating back to 2015.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cBecause an injury happens on a surface doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s actually caused by that surface and, in this case, we haven\u2019t seen a data difference for Achilles injuries,\u201d Miller said.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more work to do. We don\u2019t want those injuries in the game. We want to prevent those that we can, especially major injuries like those and we\u2019ll continue to do that through the data, through the research and through a great deal of effort.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      When asked on Tuesday what message it sends to league players that a few stadiums change their surface from artificial to grass for soccer and then revert back to the synthetic field for football, Miller said: \u201cWe do spend a lot of time thinking about surfaces and their injury rates and how those relate to how our game is played in the particular use cases for football.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      He added: \u201cThere are certain natural grass surfaces that from an injury rate perspective have a lower injury rate than synthetic surfaces and some synthetic surfaces that have a lower injury rate than natural grass.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cWe want to drive all of those down and the only way to do that is to understand the characteristics of each of those surfaces and how they contribute to injury or don\u2019t contribute to injury.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      In a statement on Tuesday, NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell questioned why \u201cinferior artificial surfaces\u201d were acceptable for the NFL.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cMoving all stadium fields to high quality natural grass surfaces is the easiest decision the NFL can make,\u201d Howell said.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cThe players overwhelmingly prefer it and the data is clear that grass is simply safer than artificial turf. It is an issue that has been near the top of the players\u2019 list during my team visits and one I have raised with the NFL.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cWhile we know there is an investment to making this change, there is a bigger cost to everyone in our business if we keep losing our best players to unnecessary injuries.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      \u201cIt makes no sense that stadiums can flip over to superior grass surfaces when the World Cup comes, or soccer clubs come to visit for exhibition games in the summer \u2026 This is worth the investment and it simply needs to change now.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      Discussions over the injury risk of playing on artificial turf or grass isn\u2019t confined to the NFL.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      A review of studies published in eClinicalMedicine in April concluded that the overall incidence of injuries in soccer \u201cwas 14% (7%\u201321%) lower on artificial turf than on grass\u201d and that \u201cmen and women both had lower injury incidences on artificial turf.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\">      While the debate is sure to rage on in the NFL between the players and the league, what remains is a shocked fan base, team and a player whose dreams of raising the championship trophy have been deflated by a major injury.  <\/p>\n\n<div>This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For New York Jets fans, it was a feeling of sadness, despondency and familiar memories; a star quarterback injures his Achilles tendon in the first game of the season for a team that has Super Bowl aspirations. While Vinny Testaverde\u2019s 1999 season-ending injury hurt, for a team with realistic dreams of lifting a first Super <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}