It’s almost time for (American) football season, which means synthetic turf is on its way back to MetLife Stadium.
After two months of hosting FIFA World Cup matches on a natural grass field, the home stadium of the New York Jets and the New York Giants is in the process of reimplementing its traditional turf.
In a video shared by Steve Bognar of WNBC-TV, MetLife Stadium can be seen with its soccer pitch ripped out.
The East Rutherford, N.J., stadium hosted eight World Cup matches, including five group-stage games, two knockout games, and the final, which took place on July 19. Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 in a grind-it-out game, in which both teams’ offenses struggled to score just as much as the stadium’s two home teams.
A total of 11 NFL stadiums hosted World Cup games this year, seven of which typically use synthetic turf for NFL games. All seven of those stadiums installed natural grass fields for the World Cup.
The nationwide installation of natural grass fields prompted calls from players across the NFL for natural grass to become the leaguewide standard. Jets starting running back Breece Hall was among those players, posting “PLEASE!” in response to a post by 49ers tight end George Kittle that asked the NFL to keep natural grass surfaces in its stadiums.
Nearly six weeks ago, the NFL Players Association put out a statement urging team owners to approve a switch to natural grass across the league.
“The 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,” the NFLPA said. “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.”
Nonetheless, it appears that the NFL and its owners are holding firm for now. It is clear, though, that the World Cup sparked outrage among players that will probably not die down anytime soon.
