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Metlife Stadium is one of seven NFL venues that replaced its synthetic turf with natural grass just for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. (Photo by Nicol\u00f2 Campo\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Is the grass really greener on the other side? Seven NFL venues including MetLife Stadium in New Jersey\u2014the site of tomorrow\u2019s 2026 FIFA World Cup Final between Spain and Argentina\u2014had replaced the synthetic turf on their fields with natural grass just for the duration of the big international football tournament. Those moves have certainly fielded some questions from football players\u2014meaning NFL players or those who play the American version of football.<\/p>\n
NFL Players Have Been Using The #WorthTheCost Hashtag<\/p>\n
For example, Washington Commanders tackle Laremy posted, “If stadiums can make grass work for the World Cup, they can make it work for NFL players. We\u2019re #WorthTheCost,” on X.<\/p>\n
And Green Bay linebacker Zaire Franklin also used the #WorthTheCost hashtag to state, \u201cThe cost of doing nothing is paid for by players\u2019 bodies. Make grass mandatory. #WorthTheCost,\u201d as everybody can see here:<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, former Packer David Bakhtiari responded with, \u201cTell me you don\u2019t care about player\u2019s safety, without telling me you don\u2019t care about player\u2019s safety? @NFL\u201d to an X post showing how Gilette Stadium had removed the natural grass that it had laid down for the World Cup: <\/p>\n
In fact, five weeks ago, the NFL Player\u2019s Association had posted the following on social media: \u201cThe temporary installation of natural grass fields for the World Cup is a choice by certain NFL team owners to do for soccer players what they refuse to do for NFL players. It’s no longer a question of capability; the technology exists, the expertise exists and the resources exist to install the high-level grass fields that our players overwhelmingly prefer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Push By NFL Players For Natural Grass Isn\u2019t New<\/p>\n
This push for natural grass isn\u2019t an artificial thing and it isn\u2019t new. Last November, I wrote in Forbes<\/a> about how the NFLPA has been clamoring for NFL teams to return to their roots, so to speak, and reinstall the natural stuff in their fields. The NFLPA cited a survey that showed 92 percent of NFL players preferring natural grass and studies suggesting that injuries are more common on synthetic turf. Of note, last NFL season saw even more key NFL players getting major injuries than usual as I covered in Forbes<\/a>. <\/p>\n The argument for synthetic turf is sort of an ever green one. The artificial stuff is easier and thus less costly to maintain. That suggests that something green\u2014meaning money\u2014may be a big deciding factor here. FIFA did demand that all 11 stadiums hosting World Cup matches have natural grass field, and the NFL stadiums did respond without much protest. The NFL so far hasn\u2019t responded to the NFL players\u2019 #WorthTheCost social media movement.<\/p>\n The NFLPA also used the occasion of last year\u2019s World Club Cup tournament to do the natural argument. They pointed out how readily Metlife Stadium had switched to a grass field then. The big question, though, is whether such football \u2014meaning soccer\u2014showcases will end up laying the ground for NFL teams to reconsider what\u2019s on their football\u2014meaning American football\u2014fields. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Metlife Stadium is one of seven NFL venues that replaced its synthetic turf with natural grass just for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[81251,49,48,3274,14990,80522,40169,257059,514,82,284886,35304,13009],"class_list":["post-811764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-2026-fifa-world-cup","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-franklin","tag-metlife-stadium","tag-natural-grass","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-synthetic-turf","tag-tunsil","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811764","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=811764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}