A number of lower-body injuries happening on artificial turf throughout the NFL this season have caused quite a few notable figures in the league to speak out against FieldTurf in the name of player safety. And based on some new research, it looks like the critics might have a point.
On Monday, Pro Football Talk obtained a presentation slide created by Biocore, an engineering analysis firm, explaining that a specific type of artificial turf called “slit film” turf has “a statistically significant higher risk” of lower extremity injuries.
Here is Pro Football Talks’ explanation of the slide they obtained:
In the slide, Biocore explains that “slit-film has a statistically significant higher risk of LEX [lower extremity] injury than the League average,” explaining that independent analyses from Biocore and IQVIA agree on that point. The slide also says that “models suggest there are 2-3 more non-contact lower extremity injuries per season per stadium on slit film surfaces than other types of synthetic turf fields.”
Finally, the slide asserts that, when teams are considering new and replacement fields, “existing natural and synthetic surfaces in use in the League offer lower injury rate alternatives to slit-film.”
Earlier this year, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and San Francisco 49ers star pass rusher Nick Bosa have each spoken out against artificial turf, urging the league to reconsider its use.
