NFLPA wants to eliminate turf fields
Transcript
00:00 in the wake of Aaron Rodgers bad, terrible Monday night injury,
00:05 the torn Achilles,
00:07 the NFL Players Association is asking that all turf fields
00:12 be removed, replaced with real grass.
00:15 How do you feel about this?
00:17 - Well, I have some thoughts on this.
00:18 Roll this tape for a while.
00:20 So that's very drastic because I'm no injury.
00:24 I'm not a doctor.
00:25 I'm not a trainer, neither are you.
00:27 But from what I saw and from everything I've heard,
00:30 the turf had nothing to do with that injury, right?
00:32 It was an awkward fall, could happen anywhere, anytime.
00:35 Secondly, everything in NFL and kind of in life,
00:39 it's cyclical.
00:40 So this will take you back a minute.
00:42 The 1992 NFC Championship game,
00:45 my cohort and I, Mike Fisher of Sports Illustrated,
00:49 covered the Cowboys in the NFC Championship game,
00:51 which was Cowboys at Niners.
00:53 And it rained a monsoon in California that week.
00:57 And Candlestick Park, they were like,
00:58 it's gonna be basically underwater.
01:00 It's gonna be muddy.
01:02 The NFL at the time, think about this,
01:04 had a director of turf who went to big games
01:09 and would check out the grass field
01:11 to make sure it was playable.
01:13 They called him the sod god.
01:14 His name was George Toma.
01:16 And he went out there and said, this is a quagmire.
01:18 I don't know what we're gonna do.
01:19 They brought in new grass, but it was muddy.
01:21 And they were horrible.
01:22 And after that game, Jerry Jones says,
01:24 we gotta do something to make literally the playing field
01:28 suitable and level for all teams in big games.
01:30 - Yeah.
01:31 - 30 years later, they're like,
01:32 we've gotta do something about these fake fields
01:35 to make, it's just, it's funny.
01:37 It's ironic how all of a sudden what was done for safety
01:40 and for financial reasons is now deemed,
01:44 it's dangerous to the players, and let's bring back grass.
01:49 It doesn't take, I mean, you're an athlete.
01:52 You've run on grass or you've run on this turf.
01:54 - Very different.
01:55 - It's a difference.
01:56 I mean, I saw a story on HBO's Real Sports,
01:59 which I love that show, and they just did a simple test.
02:01 They dropped a bowling ball from six feet on turf
02:05 and then on grass, and the difference
02:06 of the reverberation was six inches.
02:08 Well, think about that with a human falling.
02:10 - With your knees.
02:11 - With your knees and the constant pounding.
02:14 Now, turfs come a long way from,
02:17 you know, Alicia talked about the vet in Philly
02:18 being concrete and the little Astrodome was like asphalt.
02:22 We've come a long way, but we're still not to where
02:24 it's as good as grass, so, and you know what,
02:27 selfishly, I miss the grass stains
02:29 and sometimes a muddy game and sometimes the snow.
02:33 I think fans miss that.
02:34 It's kind of antiseptic and artificial,
02:37 and if it's dangerous, then I think they're right.
02:39 Now, just all of a sudden, because of that injury,
02:42 going, we need all grass, that seems drastic,
02:44 but I do think in our lifetime, we'll be talking grass
02:47 and then we'll be having a conversation,
02:49 well, could we go back to turf because everything cycles.
02:53 - Well, not to mention too, a lot of the new stadiums
02:55 are the indoor/outdoor.
02:56 - Yeah.
02:57 - So you have a lot more protected, your real grass
02:59 will be much more protected than some of the colder states.
03:04 - And with retractable roofs, now you can get some grass
03:06 and we, you know, in Arizona, they just bring in grass
03:09 on trays now, so we've come a long way technology,
03:13 but we're still not as good as good old grass
03:15 and good old sunshine.
03:16 Bye.
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