{"id":733698,"date":"2026-06-13T07:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T07:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/733698\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T07:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T07:00:09","slug":"george-kittle-uses-usmnt-world-cup-match-to-advocate-for-nfl-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/733698\/","title":{"rendered":"George Kittle uses USMNT World Cup match to advocate for NFL players"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Men&#8217;s National Team opened their World Cup journey Friday night on a grass field at SoFi Stadium. Amid their 3-0 first-half romp over Paraguay, <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/san-francisco-49ers\/359\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:San Francisco 49ers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;San Francisco 49ers&quot;}\" class=\"link \">San Francisco 49ers<\/a> tight end <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/players\/30259\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:George Kittle;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;George Kittle&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">George Kittle<\/a> took to Twitter to comment on the playing surface at the home stadium of the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/los-angeles-rams\/343\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Los Angeles Rams;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Los Angeles Rams&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Los Angeles Rams<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Also this grass <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/gkittle46\/status\/2065602950727094556?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:looks great on Sofi&#039;s field;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;looks great on Sofi&#039;s field&quot;}\" class=\"link \">looks great on Sofi&#8217;s field<\/a>&#8230;&#8221; Kittle wrote. &#8220;Wonder if we could get that all season.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Playing surfaces have been a topic of conversation around the NFL as injuries on artificial surfaces have come under increasing scrutiny. With the NFL&#8217;s collective bargaining agreement set to expire at the end of the 2030 season and a potential 18-game season on the table, there&#8217;s a strong chance we see players push for the league to outlaw artificial surfaces in favor of natural grass.<\/p>\n<p>FIFA required World Cup venues to install natural grass, so the tournament is proof-positive that NFL stadiums are capable of putting down a professional-quality natural grass surface. Kittle was quick to point that out early in the USMNT&#8217;s World Cup opener, and it wouldn&#8217;t be a surprise to see the grass at NFL stadiums become a more frequent observation from players throughout the international soccer contest.<\/p>\n<p>More 49ers: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/49ers-ranked-4th-nfl-quick-145528860.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:49ers ranked 4th in NFL in quick-passing efficiency in 2025;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;49ers ranked 4th in NFL in quick-passing efficiency in 2025&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">49ers ranked 4th in NFL in quick-passing efficiency in 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/ninerswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/niners\/2026\/06\/12\/usmnt-match-grass-field-sofi-stadium-49ers-george-kittle\/90534476007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:USMNT match on grass at SoFi Stadium sparks 49ers&#039; George Kittle post;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;USMNT match on grass at SoFi Stadium sparks 49ers&#039; George Kittle post&quot;}\" class=\"link \">USMNT match on grass at SoFi Stadium sparks 49ers&#8217; George Kittle post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States Men&#8217;s National Team opened their World Cup journey Friday night on a grass field at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[263892,49,48,9963,29896,263893,1749,257059,514,948,82,13009],"class_list":["post-733698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-artificial-surfaces","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-collective-bargaining-agreement","tag-george-kittle","tag-grass-field","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-natural-grass","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}