SAN FRANCISCO —For years now, the NFLPA has been banging the drum to try to get more NFL teams to adopt natural grass playing surfaces, instead of turf, but as was shown by a widely maligned playing surface at Acrisure Stadium last fall, just playing on grass isn't always perfect.
With a rash of injuries to star players in 2025, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup causing grass to be laid over turf in seven NFL stadiums this summer, that noise likely won't quiet down any time soon.
The NFL and NFLPA reached an agreement in December that will go into place for 2026 that for the first time puts limits on which providers of turf and grass that teams can use, similarly to the way the league and union agreed on phasing in more-modern helmet providers.
"We made meaningful progress on field safety this year," NFPLA interim executive director David White said on Tuesday. "The league implemented new league-wide field standards, that reflected the joint work that the PA is doing with the league. … The standards going to help move the game toward greater consistency across stadiums and across surface composition. It gives us a chance to get even deepened about surface composition, maintenance requirements, better testing protocols, in-season monitoring, these are all things."
But while the national conversation has been one about the relative safety of grass and turf and the overwhelming preference of players for grass over turf, the conversation in Pittsburgh has been different.
The Steelers' grass playing surface came under fire again in the 2025 season, with kicker Chris Boswell slipping and missing a field goal and special teams captain Miles Killebrew suffered a season-ending knee injury, which some teammates attributed to the turf.
"Honestly, it was shit," fellow captain Cam Heyward said . "I lost one of my teammates and that makes me sad about it. … I like grass, but that wasn't grass we played on."
Heyward is the Steelers' NFLPA union rep and a member of the executive committee. But it doesn't seem that his stance about the conditions in Pittsburgh has impacted the consciousness of the greater body of the union, despite the arrangement to allow inspections and restrict suppliers with the NFL.
"I think the maintenance thing has always been the biggest push-back," NFLPA president Jalen Reeves-Maybin said on Tuesday. "Keeping it in shape, when we get deeper into the season or when just turning it over from a week and giving it time to recover. But I think it's been pretty unanimous that the players want a grass surface and obviously, that comes with, don't just give us any grass surface now. Let's make sure this is a playable surface. …
"But we've shown that most of the people want to play on grass and the league has shown that they are willing to take turf out to put grass in for (other) people. If they feel like it benefits them. I think it's something they should really look at. If they want to really care about player safety, and they really wanted to do what's best for the players' bodies, and we're willing to take out turf and put in grass to make other people happy, what are we willing to do to protect our players."
The NFLPA and NFL have not announced the specific things that the new field safety policy is looking for, so it remains to be seen if the conditions that drew so much ire at Acrisure Stadium last fall would have passed muster under the new regime. Either way, it seems that the union is pressing on toward seeking more grass fields in more places, even with problems cropping up in Pittsburgh.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : NFLPA Still Pushing for More Grass, Despite Steelers Difficulties
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