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The push for lawns to replace artificial grass continues. More and more players and coaches are talking about the importance of protecting players by playing games on real grass, covering real dirt.
Rams receiver Cooper Kupp said all games his team will play on artificial turf in the league’s new stadium will have to be played on grass. Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey was asked about the situation on Friday, during his weekly press conference.
Ramsay said of the choice “grass”. “I feel it’s better for you. It’s better on your joints, it’s better on your body. This might sound a little funny or a little weird, but if you’re out there playing, all the players understand what I’m saying, it feels different. You can feel the grass differently than you can feel the grass. He can give it a little bit. The way you plant, the way you break, the feel is better. But I don’t trip, if I get there I’ll play with concrete.
Many players have that mindset, either because they really feel that way or because they believe they need to speak up to be considered strong.
Ramsey was also asked if the turf and turf issue was a player safety issue. He stated the obvious, but with some reluctance in his answer.
“I mean, there’s little but nothing we can do,” Ramsey said. “There’s a lot of things that go into that, business, all that other stuff, but yeah, I do. Everything is good though. “
Ramsay seems to have resigned because he has nothing. Stan Kroenke could have built a stadium with a grass system, but it would have been too expensive to do so. When the venue hosts one of the other revenue-generating events other than Rams or Chargers football games, the artificial turf can be covered quickly and easily. And it would have added costs to create a system to roll the turf into the stadium, which is currently used in Arizona and Las Vegas.
The surface safety issue has drawn more attention following Chargers cornerback JC Jackson’s non-contact, season-ending surface knee injury. During Super Bowl LVI, the same thing happened to Rams receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
“Sometimes accidents happen, don’t they?” Ramsay said. “It comes into play, but like I said, I like grass more than grass, but it is what it is. There is a lot that goes into everything. Nothing is ever easy. We try to come here and try to give all the simple answers or I’ll try to give you simple answers, but nothing is simple. Business comes into it, all kinds of things go into all these decisions when it comes to building a mega stadium like this. So it’s just part of it. It happened. It’s part of it. Everybody has to deal with it, so it’s not something we really like to complain about, you know what I mean? Because everyone has to deal with it. But whether that is a sudden accident or grass or any reason, it is very painful to see such injuries. It hurts to see so many people hurt.
Ramsey may seem aloof on the matter, but he resigned because no matter how much anyone complains, changes are unlikely to happen.
Still, everyone needs to keep pushing for change. It’s easy to confuse why owners don’t pay for a safe playground. If enough people make enough noise about it, they’ll have no choice but to dip into their superyacht maintenance budget with some money that could be used to put better, safer playing surfaces at the soccer stadiums they use.
In recent months, Super Bowl-winning coaches like John Harbaugh and Pete Carroll have protested. The Union’s position is also clear. Most people need to speak loudly and often to make a difference.
