After Aaron Rodgers' season-ending injury, is turf on its way out?
FRIDLEY, Minn. — Star quarterback Aaron Rodgers posted, "I shall rise yet again," in his first message since Monday night's season-ending injury.
He tore his Achilles tendon on a turf field. Now, the NFL Players Association is calling for all fields to go to grass.
In Minnesota, football coaches say most fields are turf.
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Fridley High School is one of the few schools with grass, which Assistant Coach John Swanson says can be safer than turf because it's softer and athletes get better footing. But Swanson says it's unrealistic to expect grass to be consistently high-quality.
"Running multiple teams, from varsity down to youth, there's a lot of games, and grass fields, especially in Minnesota, almost always get chewed up so badly," he said.
Mark Jezierski with the Edina Football Association agrees with the NFLPA though.
"It would be preferable to play on grass versus turf," Jezierski said. "Look at professional soccer, right? They refuse to play on turf, and there's a reason for that."
Supporters of turf say the technology's come a long way. Dr. Brian Sleasman, an orthopedic surgeon with Allina Health, says the better turf, plus young athletes being much smaller and slower than NFL players, make turf a fine option for youth-level sports.
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"The studies on it are honestly quite variable," Sleasman said. "There are some that suggest that turf is much more injury prone and there are some studies that suggest the opposite. If you have grass that's hard and icy and not growing, then probably the risk increases. Where turf, you don't really have to worry about that."
U.S. Bank Stadium and Huntington Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota both use turf.
