So this is something that I rarely thought about until about 18 months ago. Now that seemingly every NFL player has a podcast, I started hearing almost incessant bitching from almost all of them about playing on artificial turf. I started to look into it to see if there was anything to it. I was surprised to see that this wasn't just guys bitching, the numbers are very clear Link & link. Not only is there a much higher rate of lower extremity injuries, but head injuries as well. I think it is great the lengths that both college and pro football have gone to tackle the concussion issue, but the data is pretty clear that artificial turf also puts players at a higher risk for concussion (link). I have even heard players talk about how much more sore they are even when they aren't injured after playing on turf.
When watching our game this week it seemed like somebody was down almost every play for either us or USCe and I started to think about the surface. Especially when looking at Cook's injury earlier this year by essentially just trying to stop. LBIII was banged up by simply going to the ground (yes this can obviously happen on grass too) it just seems like a silly thing to continue with when the data is clear that injury rates are higher on turf for both short term injuries and long term brain injuries. This is magnified when you look at all the money that has been dropped on facilities as a whole. I used to think this was a so what, who cares topic, but now not so much. When you look around the SEC East UGA, Florida, and Tennessee all have grass. We used to. I think it is time to bring it back. I get it's cheaper and it is harder to grow grass in Missouri than some other warmer places, but stadiums way further north than Missouri have grass. It's not impossible. Thoughts?
When watching our game this week it seemed like somebody was down almost every play for either us or USCe and I started to think about the surface. Especially when looking at Cook's injury earlier this year by essentially just trying to stop. LBIII was banged up by simply going to the ground (yes this can obviously happen on grass too) it just seems like a silly thing to continue with when the data is clear that injury rates are higher on turf for both short term injuries and long term brain injuries. This is magnified when you look at all the money that has been dropped on facilities as a whole. I used to think this was a so what, who cares topic, but now not so much. When you look around the SEC East UGA, Florida, and Tennessee all have grass. We used to. I think it is time to bring it back. I get it's cheaper and it is harder to grow grass in Missouri than some other warmer places, but stadiums way further north than Missouri have grass. It's not impossible. Thoughts?
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