David Bakhtiari rips into the NFL about artificial turf

doubledragon

We all saw what happened to Aaron Rodgers last night, David Bakhtiari came out and ripped into the NFL about the artificial turf.

Aaron Rodgers' injury prompts renewed call for NFL grass over turf from David Bakhtiari: 'You care more about soccer players'

Aaron Rodgers' left foot was planted in the turf when he sustained an ankle injury Monday.

David Bakhtiari didn't mince words when his friend and former teammate Aaron Rodgers went down with injury Monday.

The longtime Green Bay Packers left tackle immediately made a pointed call for the league to install natural grass fields at all NFL stadiums.

"How many more players have to get hurt on ARTIFICIAL TURF??!" Bakhtiari wrote on social media. "You care more about soccer players than us. You plan to remove all artificial turf for the World Cup coming up. So clearly it’s feasible. I’m sick of this..Do better!"

Rodgers left Monday's game on his first drive with the New York Jets after joining the team via trade from the Green Bay Packers. His left ankle appeared to get caught in the turf during a tackle, and he left the field on a cart.

He was eventually seen in a walking boot. X-rays were negative, but the Jets, Rodgers and the rest of the NFL world anxiously await the results of an MRI on Monday that will will detect any soft tissue and ligament damage.

Head coach Robert Saleh said after the 22-16 Jets win that the team feared an Achilles injury.

"It's not good," Saleh told reporters.

Why don't all NFL stadiums have natural grass?

Calls for natural grass in NFL stadiums aren't new. Artificial turf has evolved significantly since the early days of AstroTurf, and some advocates argue that it's safer than playing on natural grass. Others contend that it will get there eventually if it's not already.

But skeptics abound — especially among players — frequently point to injuries like Rodgers' as reason to install natural grass. Bakhtiari rightfully pointed out that NFL stadiums hosting World Cup games in 2026 will switch to natural grass to meet World Cup standards demanding it. Those stadiums include SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and AT&T Stadium in Dallas, which both currently host NFL games on artificial turf.

MetLife Stadium has been a frequent target of critics after a rash of injuries to San Francisco 49ers players in a 2020 game against the Jets. Those calls were heeded — to a point. Officials installed new turf at MetLife Stadium during the offseason.

But it's not natural grass. It's the latest iteration of artificial turf called the FieldTurf Core system that touts technology such as "the first multi-layer dual-polymer monofilament fiber."

That technology is of no solace to Rodgers, Jets fans or longstanding critics of the use of artificial turf of any kind.

perkdog

He is not wrong but the League wants higher scoring games

BillJones

Artificial turf is penny wise and pound foolish. You pay hundreds of millions of dollars to star athletes and then they tear up their legs on the stuff. STUPID!

I think the worst had to be the surface at the late and unlamented Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. I heard that playing there was like falling on concrete.

perkdog

@BillJones said:
Artificial turf is penny wise and pound foolish. You pay hundreds of millions of dollars to star athletes and then they tear up their legs on the stuff. STUPID!

I think the worst had to be the surface at the late and unlamented Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. I heard that playing there was like falling on concrete.

It's partly the players fault, the union should have supported them refusing to play on it

doubledragon

This is insane, two hours before the game last night, a Twitter user predicted this would happen.

craig44

I would agree. these guys should be playing on the best grass money can buy.

most likely, had this game been on grass, Rodgers would have made a big divot and play would have continued.

perkdog

Grass would slow down a lot of thi gs and muddy conditions would turn it into a low scoring slog fest

It would be detrimental to the made for TV high scoring games

thisistheshow

@perkdog said:

@BillJones said:
Artificial turf is penny wise and pound foolish. You pay hundreds of millions of dollars to star athletes and then they tear up their legs on the stuff. STUPID!

I think the worst had to be the surface at the late and unlamented Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. I heard that playing there was like falling on concrete.

It's partly the players fault, the union should have supported them refusing to play on it

.....
Somewhere here might know, or look it up...off the top of my head I can't remember (surprise, surprise) the current state of all of the stadiums. I want to say that a lot of them have gone away from that cement turf, but still have something less than desirable. Some of them have gone to something kid of "real" that is easier to maintain than actual real grass.

This is a topic that I have never really delved into, but I have skipped over a lot of writing on it, so the info is out there, and there are plenty of people passionate about the issue.

I would imagine that having 100% real grass would present problems.

Either way, I wish they would go back to just real grass, let it get all torn up, and let us watch sloppy mud bowls again.

The indoor stadiums, I think, have an assortment of different fields, some that roll out maybe??

Alfonz24

@BillJones said:
Artificial turf is penny wise and pound foolish. You pay hundreds of millions of dollars to star athletes and then they tear up their legs on the stuff. STUPID!

I think the worst had to be the surface at the late and unlamented Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. I heard that playing there was like falling on concrete.

In 1993, Wendell Davis, Bears WR, blew out both knees on the same play without being touched because of the seams in the horrible turf at Veterans Stadium.

craig44

@Alfonz24 said:

@BillJones said:
Artificial turf is penny wise and pound foolish. You pay hundreds of millions of dollars to star athletes and then they tear up their legs on the stuff. STUPID!

I think the worst had to be the surface at the late and unlamented Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. I heard that playing there was like falling on concrete.

In 1993, Wendell Davis, Bears WR, blew out both knees on the same play without being touched because of the seams in the horrible turf at Veterans Stadium.

that is horrible. I was big into the NFL at the time, but i dont remember it. I did do just a little research on this incident though. It seems Jim Harbaugh screwed poor wendell twice.

the play that he tore both Patelar tendons, was a poorly thrown pass from Jim Harbaugh that he tried to extend to catch.

fast forward to 2009. Wendell was hired by 49ers coach Mike Singletary to be WR coach. After Singletary was fired in 2011, new coach, Jim Harbaugh, fired wendell davis and hired a new WR coach.

poor wendell

Basebal21

@perkdog said:

@BillJones said:
Artificial turf is penny wise and pound foolish. You pay hundreds of millions of dollars to star athletes and then they tear up their legs on the stuff. STUPID!

I think the worst had to be the surface at the late and unlamented Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. I heard that playing there was like falling on concrete.

It's partly the players fault, the union should have supported them refusing to play on it

The union isnt in a position to have actual strikes which it would take. Too many players would be broke within weeks and the owners know it which is why the owners get such a massive cut of the money.

Field turf really is the worst thing to happen to sports though overall. Knee and ankle injuries are significantly higher and theres even been studies on some that show a rise in leukemia if the black pellets get into open wounds especially with children which is one of the reasons guys have the white tape on the back of their arms. Whether its football or baseball pro stadiums should be natural grass, the billionaire owners can skip that extra Lamborghini to pay for grass over turf

Steven59

@doubledragon said:

Daaaaamn, what a picture.........you can almost hear that achilles popping - YIKES!

doubledragon

@Steven59 said:

@doubledragon said:

Daaaaamn, what a picture.........you can almost hear that achilles popping - YIKES!

Very gruesome stuff, hard to look at.

BillJones

@Steven59 said:

@doubledragon said:

Daaaaamn, what a picture.........you can almost hear that achilles popping - YIKES!

I remember the televised picture of the broken leg that ended Joe Theismann’s career. That was much worse.

Basebal21

@BillJones said:

@Steven59 said:

@doubledragon said:

Daaaaamn, what a picture.........you can almost hear that achilles popping - YIKES!

I remember the televised picture of the broken leg that ended Joe Theismann’s career. That was much worse.

McGhaee tearing everything in his knee on a hit at Miami at the Fiesta Bowl is unwatchable with his leg bending the wrong way like he was a pelican

perkdog

@Basebal21 said:

@perkdog said:

@BillJones said:
Artificial turf is penny wise and pound foolish. You pay hundreds of millions of dollars to star athletes and then they tear up their legs on the stuff. STUPID!

I think the worst had to be the surface at the late and unlamented Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. I heard that playing there was like falling on concrete.

It's partly the players fault, the union should have supported them refusing to play on it

The union isnt in a position to have actual strikes which it would take. Too many players would be broke within weeks and the owners know it which is why the owners get such a massive cut of the money.

But again nobody forced them to play, these guys were not making the exorbitant salaries back in the early 70's and they could have stood firm and absolutely refused to play on that field whether the union or owner supported them or not.

Believe me, whoever the owner was would have hit the pause button if his team refused to play on that field, this works both ways, the players lose money but the greedy owners lose bigger money

Basebal21

@perkdog said:

@Basebal21 said:

@perkdog said:

@BillJones said:
Artificial turf is penny wise and pound foolish. You pay hundreds of millions of dollars to star athletes and then they tear up their legs on the stuff. STUPID!

I think the worst had to be the surface at the late and unlamented Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. I heard that playing there was like falling on concrete.

It's partly the players fault, the union should have supported them refusing to play on it

The union isnt in a position to have actual strikes which it would take. Too many players would be broke within weeks and the owners know it which is why the owners get such a massive cut of the money.

But again nobody forced them to play, these guys were not making the exorbitant salaries back in the early 70's and they could have stood firm and absolutely refused to play on that field whether the union or owner supported them or not.

Believe me, whoever the owner was would have hit the pause button if his team refused to play on that field, this works both ways, the players lose money but the greedy owners lose bigger money

The turf issue is a bigger issue than just the NFL. College football and MLB and college baseball have the same issues because the turf is cheaper for owners and schools. Its not as much of an issue for baseball obviously. The top soccer teams in the world play on grass because they have the power to make it happen.

The NFL players have been pushing for grass for a long time which they should have but they dont have the power to force it. The players in the 70s 80s were all playing on grass fields. It started with turf in domed stadiums but now open air stadiums have turf as well

BillJones

@Basebal21 said:

@perkdog said:

@Basebal21 said:

@perkdog said:

@BillJones said:
Artificial turf is penny wise and pound foolish. You pay hundreds of millions of dollars to star athletes and then they tear up their legs on the stuff. STUPID!

I think the worst had to be the surface at the late and unlamented Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. I heard that playing there was like falling on concrete.

It's partly the players fault, the union should have supported them refusing to play on it

The union isnt in a position to have actual strikes which it would take. Too many players would be broke within weeks and the owners know it which is why the owners get such a massive cut of the money.

But again nobody forced them to play, these guys were not making the exorbitant salaries back in the early 70's and they could have stood firm and absolutely refused to play on that field whether the union or owner supported them or not.

Believe me, whoever the owner was would have hit the pause button if his team refused to play on that field, this works both ways, the players lose money but the greedy owners lose bigger money

The turf issue is a bigger issue than just the NFL. College football and MLB and college baseball have the same issues because the turf is cheaper for owners and schools. Its not as much of an issue for baseball obviously. The top soccer teams in the world play on grass because they have the power to make it happen.

The NFL players have been pushing for grass for a long time which they should have but they dont have the power to force it. The players in the 70s 80s were all playing on grass fields. It started with turf in domed stadiums but now open air stadiums have turf as well

The owners should be smart enough to know that paying hundreds of millions for high priced talent and then wasting it on artificial turf with injuries is stupid. Aaron Rogers is a glaring example. The Jets got four plays from scrimmage from their investment before he went down for the season.

Basebal21

@BillJones said:

@Basebal21 said:

@perkdog said:

@Basebal21 said:

@perkdog said:

@BillJones said:
Artificial turf is penny wise and pound foolish. You pay hundreds of millions of dollars to star athletes and then they tear up their legs on the stuff. STUPID!

I think the worst had to be the surface at the late and unlamented Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. I heard that playing there was like falling on concrete.

It's partly the players fault, the union should have supported them refusing to play on it

The union isnt in a position to have actual strikes which it would take. Too many players would be broke within weeks and the owners know it which is why the owners get such a massive cut of the money.

But again nobody forced them to play, these guys were not making the exorbitant salaries back in the early 70's and they could have stood firm and absolutely refused to play on that field whether the union or owner supported them or not.

Believe me, whoever the owner was would have hit the pause button if his team refused to play on that field, this works both ways, the players lose money but the greedy owners lose bigger money

The turf issue is a bigger issue than just the NFL. College football and MLB and college baseball have the same issues because the turf is cheaper for owners and schools. Its not as much of an issue for baseball obviously. The top soccer teams in the world play on grass because they have the power to make it happen.

The NFL players have been pushing for grass for a long time which they should have but they dont have the power to force it. The players in the 70s 80s were all playing on grass fields. It started with turf in domed stadiums but now open air stadiums have turf as well

The owners should be smart enough to know that paying hundreds of millions for high priced talent and then wasting it on artificial turf with injuries is stupid. Aaron Rogers is a glaring example. The Jets got four plays from scrimmage from their investment before he went down for the season.

They should be, but they dont care. NFL contracts arent assured so if someone gets hurt they just move onto the next guy and say well it already happened so cant change that now. Players are just cattle for owners. NFL owners dont even pay players, they get paid out of the league revenue which is split between the owners and players that sets the salary cap number