Noncontact accidents for NFL gamers occurred at a better charge on synthetic turf in comparison with grass through the 2022 common season, in accordance with information launched this week by the NFL Gamers Affiliation.
The hole arose one 12 months after the league moved to neutralize the controversy in regards to the two sorts of enjoying surfaces primarily based on 2021 numbers.
Gamers have lengthy stated they like grass over synthetic turf, arguing it was not solely safer but in addition that it feels higher to play on. In an essay posted to the NFLPA web site Wednesday, union president J.C. Tretter famous that the harm charge on grass surfaces was decrease from 2012 to 2020. Though the charges have been primarily the identical in 2021, Tretter termed that end result an “outlier.”
“As an alternative of following the long-term information (which is obvious on this problem), listening to gamers and making the sport safer,” Tretter wrote, “the NFL used an outlier 12 months to interact in a PR marketing campaign to persuade everybody that the issue would not truly exist.”
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“In brief, final 12 months, the hole — very like the NFL’s credibility with gamers on this problem — was as huge because it has ever been,” Tretter continued, “proving that (because the NFLPA suspected) 2021 was actually an outlier. Now, 10 of the earlier 11 years present the identical precise factor — grass is a considerably safer floor than turf.”
Jeff Miller, the NFL’s govt vp of communications, public affairs and coverage, stated in an announcement launched Thursday that “there are not any easy solutions” to this dialogue.
“The NFL and the NFLPA have entry to the identical harm info, which is collected by impartial consultants and shared on the CBA-mandated Joint Subject Floor Security and Efficiency Committee conferences,” Miller stated within the assertion. “The committee, together with the NFLPA’s consultants, consider that merely enjoying on pure grass is just not the reply to this complicated problem. Some synthetic turf surfaces have a decrease harm charge than some grass fields — and a few grass fields have a decrease harm charge than some synthetic surfaces.
“Our aim is to lower accidents on all surfaces. There are not any easy solutions, however we’re dedicated to the substantial, ongoing work with the gamers and their knowledgeable advisors to make the sport safer.”
That NFL/NFLPA committee makes use of a third-party firm, IQIVA, to compile and analyze harm information. Addressing a public push final fall from gamers, coaches and brokers to transform all stadiums to grass fields, Dallas Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones dismissed the thought primarily based on IQIVA information.
“Our league stats do not see points with the kind [of] floor that we’ve got [at AT&T Stadium] versus pure grass,” Jones stated. “We do not see points. No information bear that out.”
The surfaces committee pays explicit consideration to lower-extremity accidents that happen with out contact and will doubtlessly be attributed to the floor itself, particularly to the knees, ankles and ft.
As not too long ago as 2019, the speed of such accidents was notably greater on synthetic turf fields than grass. However the distinction started narrowing in 2020, and by 2021, the numbers have been virtually the identical. Synthetic surfaces had an incident charge of .042 per 100 in 2021, whereas the speed for pure surfaces was .041 per 100. That ratio “replicated” through the 2022 preseason, Miller stated final fall.
That pattern meant that “the dialogue between artificial surfaces and pure grass surfaces is not actually the argument,” Miller stated then. As an alternative, he stated, the NFL and NFLPA ought to attempt to “lower accidents on each.”
However the full information in 2022 returned to earlier norms. The speed for noncontact lower-extremity accidents on synthetic turf rose to a charge of .048 per 100. The corresponding charge on grass was 0.035.
Within the put up, Tretter additionally accused the NFL of permitting the Carolina Panthers to host a Week 16 recreation final season even after the substitute turf at Financial institution of America Stadium failed the league’s customary pregame take a look at. Based on Tretter, the league knowledgeable the NFLPA that the sphere reached acceptable situations late within the first half.
“However the reality stays that the gamers in that recreation needed to play on a discipline that the league acknowledges was not secure,” Tretter stated. “That’s past irritating to gamers and unacceptable within the eyes of our union.”
The edges are headed to arbitration on the problem.
“The union’s assertions are incorrect,” Miller stated in Thursday’s assertion. “However we’ll make our arguments within the acceptable CBA-mandated grievance course of, which is ongoing.”
Requested if that they had any plans to alter surfaces or in any other case reply to the NFLPA’s claims, the Panthers issued an announcement from a spokesman of Tepper Sports activities Leisure: “We’re nonetheless discussing our choices internally and don’t have any additional replace at the moment.”
ESPN Panthers reporter David Newton contributed to this story.
