ThurmasThoman Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I actually have played quite a few games of football on artificial turf and I never liked it. I'm no scientist, but it seems to me that it increases injuries. Having this belief of course I wouldn't want my favorite football team to be playing on it. Lastly; I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to the trappings of the game. I just think football should be played on grass; well kept, beautiful, green grass. this is really cool. Ive always wondered about natural grass vs. artificial, just based on how much it hurts to get tackled on both! the high school i went to recently switched from grass to turf, and there were a lot of stories and op ed pieces in the local paper about it (its a small town, not much else to talk about.) basically the school said they did a lot of research, and statistically, there are LESS injuries on turf than on grass. my college had an artificial turf field, and i played some intramural flag football on it. it seemed like playing on a track. i was amazed at how little "grass" there was. well, either way, the bills field looks amazing in HD on my tv a thousand miles away - i hope its not bad on our guys joints though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zulu Cthulhu Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Again, the product at RWS is pretty new. It was first installed in 2010 at Morristown. So nostalgia aside, most of us have no idea what it's like to play, fall, run etc... on it. Not all artificial turfs are created equal. This stuff at RWS cound be better for the players than grass in the long run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Fong Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Fine, I respect your opinion. It is funny when people equate natural grass with being a "purist" though. I hope everyone realizes the only reason football (and every other outdoor sport on earth) started on grass is because nothing else had been invented yet. It's called innovation. I guess no improvements should have been made to the ball, helmets, pads, shoes, or anything else, since they've taken away the "purity" of the game. I get what you're saying, but how would you feel if they decided to put artificial turf in Augusta? It what if they replaced the grass at Wrigley Field with turf? Innovation is fine, but usually it's supposed to make things better. Artificial turf has been around for decades and still isn't as good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eball Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 (edited) I get what you're saying, but how would you feel if they decided to put artificial turf in Augusta? It what if they replaced the grass at Wrigley Field with turf? Innovation is fine, but usually it's supposed to make things better. Artificial turf has been around for decades and still isn't as good. Good questions. I think you're comparing apples to oranges, however. Artificial turf was invented as a maintenance-saving measure; grass fields take a pounding and are difficult/expensive to maintain. Plus, the game of football was never about the "field" -- it's about the game itself. Golf is all about the terrain. Personally, I don't like artificial turf on baseball fields, period, unless you're talking about a dome where it's necessary. There's no reason to put artificial turf on an outdoor baseball field. Contrast that with football -- have you seen the fields in Green Bay and Chicago in November and December? That's no fun to play on. Anyway, I think the main point is that the newer iterations of artificial turf have gotten so good they can now claim to be as safe as grass fields, and play similarly. Edited March 30, 2012 by eball Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChasBB Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 ... As far as the original topic, I thought that the survey of playing surfaces was done annually by the NFLPA. Ah ha, I found some info: http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/tag/_/name/nfl-players-association The players are surveyed every TWO years. Here is snippet from above link: "Players are surveyed every two years and asked to rank the stadiums that have natural grass and those that have artificial surfaces." I would have thought it would be an annual survey, too, but I guess this allows players to be exposed to more surfaces before being surveyed. Thanks all for your responses to this topic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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