We live in a time where even the most undebatable issue ends up having two sides to it. For the NFL, it’s undebatable that players prefer grass fields to the fake stuff. And it’s undebatable that grass is better than turf.
Although the debate over something that shouldn’t be debated will bubble up from time to time, the owners will continue to do nothing. Inevitably (and quickly), a bright, shiny object will distract enough people from the outcry, and the topic will change.
This week, the quality of the MetLife Stadium turf has become a flashpoint, again, following the torn ACL suffered last Sunday by Giants receiver Malik Nabers. Players like Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who typically says not much if anything about everything, made his [strong preference for grass clear](https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/matthew-stafford-on-grass-vs-turf-grass-for-me-is-a-must). Others have done the same.
It doesn’t matter. It wont change until the owners choose to do it. And it will take something big to make them do it.
They’re doing it for the World Cup (at MetLife and elsewhere) because it was one of FIFA’s non-negotiables. They’ll do it for their direct employees only when the union representing them can negotiate that term.
That’s what it comes down to. Collective bargaining. What will the NFL Players Association offer to the league to get the league to mandate high-quality grass fields in every NFL stadium? Or, more accurately, what will the league want?
It doesn’t matter than NFLPA interim executive director David White raised the issue this week during a pre-planned visit with the Giants. Nothing will change until the union makes the owners an offer they won’t refuse.
Whatever it takes, it will be a lot. Unless and until the NFLPA is willing to make a concession necessary to ditch fake grass, the league will continue to feed self-serving statistics to willing media members who will pass them along to the public without scrutiny, all the while ignoring the undebatable fact that the human body feels very different the day after playing a football game on grass and the day after playing a football game on turf.
The most confounding aspect of the entire situation continues to be this — even if the owners views the players are nameless, faceless, replaceable cogs in a machine, why won’t the owners protect their financial investment by allowing the players to perform under better conditions?
Ultimately, the owners whose teams play on turf have prioritized revenue and profit over the preferences of their players. Until the owners are forced to make a different choice, they most definitely will not.