Packers' Aaron Rodgers Voices Support for NFL to Play on Grass Fields Instead of Turf

Add Aaron Rodgers to the growing list of players publicly advocating for the NFL to do away with turf fields in favor of grass.

"As much as I've enjoyed playing indoors over the years on turf, I do think it's time to play on grass," he told reporters Tuesday. "I think you'd see less of these non-contact injuries."

Rodgers doesn't believe the NFL will ban turf, however.

"This would be putting money where your mouth is if the league is really interested in player safety," he told reporters.

A number of NFL players tweeted publicly about the safety concerns of turf last week:

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll also spoke on the issue during a late-October press conference.

"I think we definitely need to look at this really seriously in the offseason again," he told reporters. "It's been a discussion before. We've got to do what's right, and we've got to do what's safest for the players, and we've got to make those choices. I would pound on the drum for that."

The NFL has countered by pointing to studies showing that the difference in non-contact injuries between grass and turf fields are negligible.

NFL executive vice president of communications Jeff Miller released the following statement last week:

"As the NFLPA knows from the meeting of our Joint Field Surface Safety & Performance Committee earlier this month, there was no difference between the number of injuries on synthetic surfaces versus grass. While slit-film surfaces, one type of synthetic material, have 2-3 more injuries per year, most of them are ankle sprains—a low-burden injury—whereas slit film also sees a lower rate of fewer high-burden ACL injuries compared to other synthetic fields. As a result, the league and NFLPA's joint experts did not recommend any changes to surfaces at the meeting but agreed more study is needed."

As Kevin Seifert of ESPN noted, the rate of injuries on artificial surfaces were "notably higher" than on natural grass in the years leading up to 2019. In recent seasons, however, the difference has become almost indistinguishable as teams that utilize turf replace it more frequently and have improved their care and management of the surface.

Nonetheless, it is abundantly clear that players favor playing on natural grass.

"The turf is literally like concrete it has no give when you plant," Packers linebacker De'Vondre Campbell tweeted in part on Nov. 7.

Los Angeles Rams wideout Cooper Kupp previously added that the difference between the two surfaces was "not even close."