POLL: Is Sofi Artificial Turf Causing More Injuries than Natural Grass?

[powderblueboy]

Bosa (groin), Keenan (hamstring) and JC Jackson (ruptured patellar tendon) all suffered their injuries on SoFi's turf. I don't know if the turf could be responsible for any of these injuries. Parham's concussion in 2021 against the Chiefs happened when the back of his head bounced off the turf. One of the complaints about turf is that the surface is harder, less forgiving than a grass field. So I can't say that turf is responsible for what happened to Parham. But here are four impactful injuries that Chargers players have suffered in games on SoFi's turf.

Both the Rams and the Chargers were in the top 5 for injuries accrued last year.
Randomly, that's a 2 - 3 % chance of happening.

SoFi has the charm of a parking garage inside.

[FoutsFan]

Bosa (groin), Keenan (hamstring) and JC Jackson (ruptured patellar tendon) all suffered their injuries on SoFi's turf. I don't know if the turf could be responsible for any of these injuries. Parham's concussion in 2021 against the Chiefs happened when the back of his head bounced off the turf. One of the complaints about turf is that the surface is harder, less forgiving than a grass field. So I can't say that turf is responsible for what happened to Parham. But here are four impactful injuries that Chargers players have suffered in games on SoFi's turf.

I hated playing on turf. We used to call it fuzzy cement.

[Velo]

I hated playing on turf. We used to call it fuzzy cement.

Almost every high school stadium I see has turf. They are much cheaper to maintain than grass and these turf-makers are pretty convincing to school boards when they play up their product as being as safe as grass. I played Pop Warner and high school football from 1970-75 and I'm pretty sure all the fields I played were grass.

[FoutsFan]

Almost every high school stadium I see has turf. They are much cheaper to maintain than grass and these turf-makers are pretty convincing to school boards when they play up their product as being as safe as grass. I played Pop Warner and high school football from 1970-75 and I'm pretty sure all the fields I played were grass.

Indeed, I played in the 80's and every field we played on was grass except 2 of them. They were turf and old turf. It was terrible. Fuzzy Cement.

[Boltjolt]

I've actually never played on turf. All grass in So. Cal back in the day and wherever we went fortunately was grass. Talking late 70's, early 80's..

The high school near my house today in NV just got a turf field last year. I don't think all the field here are turf though.

[Velo]

I've actually never played on turf. All grass in So. Cal back in the day and wherever we went fortunately was grass. Talking late 70's, early 80's..

The high school near my house today in NV just got a turf field last year. I don't think all the field here are turf though.

The trend has been for high schools to replace grass with turf, that's part of what Florio and Simms go into in the vid I posted. In Sacramento, all the high school football stadium fields I see have turf now. One of my softball teamies is a baseball coach at one of the high schools and I asked him about this. He said it's about money, turf costs more to install but after that the maintenance is cheap. The prolonged drought here also factored into it, you don't have to water turf and water rates have soared in recent years. He also said the companies that manufacture and install turf are pretty good at convincing school boards their product is just as safe as grass.

[jamrock]

Both the Rams and the Chargers were in the top 5 for injuries accrued last year.
Randomly, that's a 2 - 3 % chance of happening.

SoFi has the charm of a parking garage inside.

That’s a pretty damning statistic. It’s not the same turf as the 70’s and 80’s. They have made strides in softening it but it’s still not the same. Guys can get injured on any surface but the weird non contact injuries seem more likely on turf.

[21&500]

Hopefully we can turn in into an advantage if our players are able to adjust somewhat to playing on turf. There has to be small adjustments a player can make to minimize hard traction where most of these non contact injuries are happening.
kinda like the cold in the east cost of thin air in Denver.
let our visiting teams have trouble adjusting on sundays.

Maybe a more vertical offense will produce less injuries since it involves less sharp cuts.
Common Staley, do something genius.

[SuperCharged]

I have been saying this for years. Turf is so much more dangerous. What's the point of turf? To speed up the game. To keep a field intact when there's bad weather? Most stadiums are inside.

The point is... Grass is 1000's of time more forgiving. No matter how many inches of shredded tires there are it's not anywhere near grass..

If football really cared for the players, pads would be mandatory.. Heavier and applied to all crucial body points. Would it slow down the game? Yeah i'm sure it would... And?

While we're on the subject. I think a higher level of conditioning should be implemented. Conditioning is vital for prolonged health. I've seen the conditioning they do now days and it's comical.

[Air Coryell]

It's criminal to not have a grass field for NFL teams on the west coast. 100% no brainer.

[jubei]

It's criminal to not have a grass field for NFL teams on the west coast. 100% no brainer.

ESPECIALLY a team in southwest CA! As long as it has water there's plenty of sunlight to keep the grass happy.

[OG619FrightninLightnin]

Growing grass at SoFi is a pipe dream. The playing surface is literally underground, like 40 feet. (At least)

Flight path of LAX they couldn't build up.

It's not happening.