49ers' George Kittle Advocates for Grass NFL Fields While Watching USMNT's FIFA World Cup Opener

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle wondered if grass fields could primarily be used instead of turf for NFL games while watching the United States men's national team compete in the 2026 FIFA World Cup at Sofi Stadium.

"Also this grass looks great on Sofi's field… wonder if we could get that all season," Kittle wrote in a post on X.

Kittle is coming off a 2025 season in which he hauled in 57 receptions for 628 yards and seven touchdowns, although he suffered a torn Achilles in San Francisco's 23-19 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.

The game was played at Lincoln Financial Field, which uses a combination of grass and artificial turf for NFL games.

The stadium was one of several NFL venues that changed the playing surface for the World Cup, as the tournament's games must be played on natural grass.

Kittle is far from the only player advocating for the NFL to switch from turf to grass, as New York Giants offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor shared his belief.

"I'm going into year 10, and I can say wholeheartedly that grass feels way better than turf," Eluemunor said, per Rohan Nadkarni of NBC News. "With MetLife getting grass, obviously it's cool for FIFA and the World Cup. It's one of the biggest stages in the world but, at the same time, the NFL as a whole is one of the most profitable businesses in the world, and so you would think that us as players would have a say in the fields that we get to play on."

The NFL Players Association previously announced that 92 percent of the league's players prefer natural grass.