Allen speaks out on preference of grass over turf
Mike Florio and Michael Holley react to Josh Allen's comments regarding playing on natural grass vs. artificial turf, discussing the details behind the ongoing conversation.
Video Transcript
Friday edition of PFT Live.
So the Buffalo Bills have a new stadium.
I was gonna say swanky, but swanky is in the eye of the beholder.
The one thing that everybody likes about the stadium is its grass.
The players love the fact that it's grass.
And it is one situation where ownership of a team has decided to go from fake to real, and that's now gonna become, I think, a team-by-team que- especially as they're opening new stadiums, especially as these stadiums are domed.
What are you doing, Kansas City?
What are you doing, Cleveland?
What are you gonna do, Chicago, as you build these new stadiums where you're currently playing open air on grass?
But in Buffalo, where they kept an open air stadium, they do have grass.
And Michael, one of the points that has been made repeatedly, George Kittle said this to Chris Simms couple of weeks back, until the superstars start speaking out, the needle is not going to be moved.
Here is 2024 NFL MVP Josh Allen on his preference for grass over turf.
Yeah, I think grass is, grass is healthier for, for our bodies.
I'm to a point in my career now that when we practice inside on, on the artificial, I can feel it the next day, you know?
When we go out there, I feel great, and I think any guy that was honest would tell you that's, that's how they feel.
So one, I think it's healthier, injury prevention.
I've gotten numerous, numerous burns on my legs from artificial turf, like to the point where I can't sleep at night because it's bubbling over and it Like it's, it's very painful.
So I'm excited to not have to deal with that at home at least.
I know we still probably will play games on the road that are, are turf, but if I can snap my fingers and make every field grass, that's what what I would, what I would do, for sure.
Look, I apologize to anyone who may be eating breakfast, but the idea that he had a rug burn on his leg that was bubbling over- Yeah and keeping him from sleeping, that unlocks an angle to all of this that never gets addressed.
Because they can recite all they want, and they do, their go-to statistic that the injury rates are the same on grass as they are on artificial turf.
Well, the rug burn that keeps you from sleeping at night because it's bubbling over, that doesn't show up as an injury.
It becomes a major source of discomfort as you live your life, but it doesn't affect your ability to practice or play at all.
It's just that thing that hurts all the time, especially when you're trying to sleep.
So that, to me, is the best way to encapsulate the difference between the self-serving stats they wanna recite and the reality of how it feels.
'Cause we focus on how it just feels on your joints, ankles, knees, hips the next day.
Yeah, also, and this is a reality for anybody that's ever played on artificial turf, you have any exposed body part that slides on that, yeah, you're getting a rug burn.
Yeah, that's right.
You're getting a rug burn, and a rug burn hurts.
I've never had a rug burn that bubbled over, and I'd probably go to the doctor if it was bubbling over.
But it just shows you another reason why all teams should be willing to find a way to have high-quality grass for their football players and protect their investments, and also make them as comfortable as they possibly can be without rug burns bubbling over in their sleep.
Yeah.
How, how about that image, that image there, right?
Hey, you can have breakfast later.
Don't worry about it.
Okay?
Have breakfast in an hour or two.
But speaking of an hour or two, I really could have listened to Josh Allen speak on and on about this.
I'm glad he did it.
I'm glad, he was so vivid and he was so honest about it.
And it's clear, Mike, there's no reason not to have grass, in every stadium if you care about the players.
If you're all talk- if you're talking about player safety, player safety is not just changing the kickoff rules.
It's not just the Guardian Cap.
This is a part of player safety as well, converting to grass fields.
Why do owners not do it?
We know.
The number one reason is, it's more, it's cheaper to go the other way, and if you want other events at your stadium, you don't have to worry about the grass, excuse me, the grass being trampled on, at a, a Taylor Swift concert or a BTS concert.
You know?
You, you have all these events coming in, the monster trucks.
You've already got the artificial stuff.
They come in and it's not a big deal.
You also can't say, "Well, it's hard to maintain in a certain part of the country" when Philadelphia has it.
You know how tough winters are in Philadelphia.
When Green Bay has it.
The frozen tundra.
When Buffalo has it.
Yeah.
Right, right, exactly.
So I, I hope that his, commentary catches on.
I hope other star players, give their, view of it 'cause I don't think there's gonna be any star player who says, "No, no, no, I'm gonna give you the other side.
I'm gonna tell you why we wanna keep the fake stuff."
Natural grass is the way to go.
And, and it's not gonna take away from, aesthetically, anything away from the game.
We'll still enjoy it.
It'll still be very entertaining.
I th- I think it makes all the sense in the world just to have, grass fields in every stadium.
My argument has been don't try to shame the league collectively into it.
Focus on one team at a time, and the team that I suggested is the Seahawks now that Vinod Khosla is the owner.
Start pushing him.
He addressed it on social media a couple of weeks ago.
He said he'll defer to the people who helped him win a championship.
Well, those people would probably say, "Let's play on grass."
Yeah.
They already have.
Leonard Williams and Cooper Kupp said at the outset of training camp, "Let's play on grass."
So it all comes down to making the investment, and some will say, "Well, we don't own the stadium."
Yeah, but you got some sway, and if you wanna pay for a grass field, they'll let you.
They'll let you.
But the issue is the lost revenue.
We can't have these other events without a system for protecting our grass field, and that gets into the planning of these stadiums.
Any of these dome stadiums, you better have a big tray like they have in Arizona and Las Vegas where you hit a button and it slides out.
That's the best way to protect it.
Get it out of the building.
Let them take care of it out there, properly water it, put the Whatever you Again, I've got no lawn care experience.
Whatever you do to get rid of dandelions and anything else, weeds, anything else- Pull them clover, right?
Just pull them.
No.
Kill them.
Kill them, and then slide it back in.
And on that point, because you don't wanna use toxic chemicals on your lawn obviously, this is something that never gets discussed the way that it should when we talk about And Chris and I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago.
And again, I apologize for any impact this may have on your breakfast appetite.
A turf field is a gross place because beyond the saliva, blood, blood, vomit, right?
All the stuff from the players that gets into the, the surface and stays there, you've got those tiny little black pellets- Yeah that are tires.
Rubber tires that have been ground up.
Hey, glad they found a use for those things, but, and this comes from a 2022 article published by the National Institutes of Health, numerous studies have shown that chemicals identified in artificial turf, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phthalates, and per- and polyfluoro- Good Lord.
Substances- You did well in the beginning are known carcinogens.
You did well.
Are Yeah, this last one, I need to do this a few times.
Pl- polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, are known carcinogens, neurotoxicants, mutagens, and endocrine disruptors.
And they play on it, and when you get that rug burn, if your skin is exposed, you're getting those little pellets into your open wound, and they're going in your mouth, and they're going in your eyes, and they're going up your nose.
This isn't safe, and there's gonna be a time, I fear, when there's a cluster of cancers among former football players, baseball players that play on this stuff, although we don't see many or any MLB I don't think there's Are there any MLB stadiums that use that crap?
I don't know.
Probably.
They used to use the green- Yeah they used to use the green cement all the time.
Yeah, all those Yeah.
They've moved, they've actually moved toward grass in baseball, but- Yeah any soccer, if they use it, and you've got all these communities that have one.
You know, it's been like The Simpsons when they sold the monorail to every community.
They've, they've sold an AstroTurf field, artificial turf field, field turf field to every community.
So it's gonna potentially be a problem.
When you, when you see that, it's undisputed that that crap is in those artificial surfaces.
That's another reason.
A- above and beyond injuries, above and beyond comfort, above and beyond rug burns, you shouldn't want to be exposed to the toxic rubber pellets and all the other crap that is laying on and in an artificial surface.
And, and Mike, wasn't it, wasn't it stunning, wasn't it eye-opening how quickly certain teams changed, certain stadiums, changed from the fake stuff to natural grass when the World Cup When the, when the, when the incentive of the World Cup was on the table for these communities.
You know, here in Boston, you know, south of Boston is, is Foxborough Stadium about 30, 30 minutes away, or Gillette Stadium, or, or, like, Boston Stadium.
That's They call it the World Cup, Boston Stadium.
But they have, they went to grass in a blink, and as soon as the World Cup was over, the World Cup games are over, they come back to this field that was problematic, this fake field that's problematic in its own right because it didn't have the right layering underneath, and it, it was a delay in getting the fake stuff back in place.
And so it can be done.
It shouldn't have to be, "We're gonna give you some incentive to do it.
We're gonna give you millions of dollars if you go to grass."
It's just the right thing to do.
It is, it, it is not, "Oh, you're pressuring me to do it."
If you want the best for your franchise, if you wanna protect your players, you put grass field in.
And I, I mentioned the Patriots.
Their second-year running back, TreVeyon Henderson, he didn't play in their preseason game last night.
Well, probably wasn't gonna play anyway, but he wasn't available to play.
Why?
Because he was on a field, it also was a fake field.
He slipped on it, turns his ankle, and so he had to leave practice early, and he might be available for week one in Seattle.
So there are just so many things that are avoidable that owners, team owners, you have a stake in this as well.
You should want to have, grass fields.
And by the way, according to Google AI, the always reliable and never incorrect Google AI, the Arizona Diamondbacks, Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, and Toronto Blue Jays have artificial turf, and that's it in baseball.
I didn't think anybody did, but I remember the multipurpose ashtray stadiums, interchangeable.
Cincinnati, Riverfront, Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, Three Rivers Stadium up the road from me here in Pittsburgh.
They all looked the same.
They looked like ashtrays- Yeah and they had that multipurpose green cement with the seams where they put the bases.
It was horrible.
Oh, they were terrible.
So fortunately, fortunately, there's more grass now in baseball, and there needs to be more grass in foot-
