In an effort to ensure that playing surfaces in NFL stadiums feature the highest-quality material, the league plans to implement a quality control accreditation system and provide an approved playing surface library for teams to select from when they decide to upgrade their fields.
Next week, the NFL, in conjunction with the NFL Players Association, will host a testing event where multiple synthetic turf manufacturers will present plots for evaluation to determine whether they meet a pass-fail criteria determined by the league’s Field Services department. The plan, according to NFL field director Nick Pappas, is for all NFL teams to have the opportunity, beginning in 2026, to pick from a library of approved and accredited field surfaces to replace existing surfaces by the end of the 2027 season.
The NFL has no plans to mandate whether stadiums use natural or synthetic grass. (Players have long lamented playing on synthetic surfaces. However, NFL officials, including chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills, maintain that there are no significant statistical differences in lower-extremity injuries.) By the 2028 season, the NFL plans to have implemented a field-recommendation system — similar to the safety-rated helmet recommendations list — that would require teams to follow when selecting new playing surfaces.
“We’re obviously trying to phase out fields that we have determined to be less ideal than newer fields coming into the industry,” Pappas said on a conference call with reporters on Thursday. “This is a big step for us. This is something that I think has been a great outcome from the Joint Service Committee, all the work, the deployment and development of devices, determining the appropriate metrics and ultimately, providing us with a way to substantiate the quality of fields more so than we ever have in the past.”
According to Pappas, most teams already replace natural playing surfaces multiple times a season and synthetic surfaces every two to three years. And every time a stadium replaces its surface, it does so with new and improved materials. Still, this move by the league will serve as a quality control measure to ensure that all 30 stadiums adhere to a uniform set of standards. In theory, all stadiums should already be utilizing up-to-date approved surfaces by 2028.
Pappas also said playing surfaces have long been tested in labs and again in stadiums using several motorized devices, including the BEAST and STRIKE Impact Tester, which simulate players’ feet striking a surface and pivoting to determine the firmness and supportive nature of each field. The goal is for the findings of that testing to guide the league’s recommendations.
As Pappas explained, “We want to make sure that we’re supporting our clubs and we’re supporting our athletes, and ensuring that every field that enters our league is meeting the requirements that we believe are, obviously, ever evolving but the right ones.”