Alkass Digital
The NFL Players Association's new executive director has called for the league to change all of its field surfaces to natural grass in the wake of Aaron Rodgers' season-ending injury.
Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles tendon on the fourth play of the Jets' season Monday night, spoiling the superstar quarterback's New York debut and reigniting the leaguewide debate over playing surfaces at NFL stadiums.
MetLife Stadium, the home of the Jets and Giants, installed a new surface this year called FieldTurf, which is softer and has a more forgiving feel than the stadium's previous synthetic turf.
But Rodgers' injury sparked a widespread outcry for grass surfaces, and NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell echoed those sentiments in a statement released Wednesday morning.
Rodgers suffered the injury while trying to spin away from Bills defensive end Leonard Floyd. The four-time league MVP's left leg was planted in the turf, and his Achilles ruptured. A slow-motion replay showed his left calf -- the same calf he strained in organized team activities -- reverberating as he went down for the sack.
The NFLPA released data this year that concluded noncontact injuries occurred at a higher rate on artificial turf compared with grass during the 2022 regular season. But internal league data reviewed by ESPN in November showed that the NFL's recent rate of noncontact injuries to the knee, ankle and foot was roughly the same on natural and artificial playing surfaces. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said at the time that the NFL has no plans to convert all playing surfaces to grass, saying the "league stats don't see issues with the type surface that we have as opposed to natural grass."
Howell said in his statement Wednesday that the union acknowledges the "investment" required to convert all stadiums to grass but also questioned why NFL team owners are planning to make those changes for the 2026 World Cup but not for their own players.
Multiple players harshly criticized the artificial surface after Rodgers' injury, however, including his former Packers teammate and close friend David Bakhtiari.