Despite concerns from the NFL Players Association, the league has insisted that injuries do not occur on artificial turf at a higher rate than they do on grass, providing evidence from the 2021 season that suggested the injury rates were very similar. But the NFLPA is pushing back against that claim.
The NFLPA said that the 2021 data was an outlier and that during every other season over the last decade, injury rates were significantly higher on turf than grass. As the NFLPA points out, this was true of 2022 as well.
“In short, last year, the gap – much like the NFL’s credibility with players on this issue – was as wide as it has ever been, proving that (as the NFLPA suspected) 2021 was in fact an outlier,” NFLPA President J.C. Tretter wrote on the NFLPA website. “Now, 10 of the previous 11 years show the same exact thing — grass is a significantly safer surface than turf.”
Tretter said that due to its misleading use of the 2021 date when all other data suggested that grass was a far safer playing surface.
“The credibility the league has with the players on health and safety issues is virtually nonexistent,” Tretter writes. “Instead of following the long-term data (which is clear on this issue), listening to players and making the game safer, the NFL used an outlier year to engage in a PR campaign to convince everyone that the problem doesn’t actually exist.”
It’s worth noting that even in 2021, injury rates were still higher on turf, they were just much more similar to grass than any other year.
All in all, it seems like the NFL has a pretty sizable problem on its hands.
[NFLPA]