New Cleveland Browns vs. Cincinnati Bengals rivalry could be brewing

Mike Brown, please install natural turf at Paul Brown Stadium

Rarely would Dawg Pound Daily, a Cleveland Browns fansite, take it upon itself to editorialize on the affairs of the owners of other teams. However, the natural turf issue affects all the teams in the AFC North, indeed, in the NFL, and this fan respectfully urges Mr. Brown to consider the science behind natural turf.

The NFLPA has recommended that all NFL teams install natural turf as the preferred playing surface for professional football. Everything that we know says that synthetic turf is not as good and causes additional unnecessary injuries, and is not going to help your guy, Joe Burrow.

The NFLPA’s position from J.C. Tretter, citing the league’s official injury reports from 2012 to 2018 shows that players have a 28% overall higher rate of noncontact lower-extremity injuries on turf, 32% higher noncontact knee injuries, and 69% higher noncontact foot and ankle injuries on artificial surfaces. Your product is getting damaged.

There are several studies in sports medicine journals that support the NFLPA. References are listed below.

One additional study I would like to see is whether free agents are just as apt to sign with synthetic turf teams, or whether players are more likely to sign with teams that feature natural turf. If the latter, the Bengals will forever be at a competitive disadvantage, because the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, and Pittsburgh Steelers are all using natural turf now. Mr. Brown, that is one reason why your Bengals cannot compete.

If your team has a quarterback with a surgically repaired knee, for instance, he might well not wish to re-sign with your team. That does not seem like a good business move, sir.

Obviously, you may not trust a two-bit sportswriter like me, and I am totally cool with that. So who do you trust to carry out an independent study on injury rates on natural turf versus artificial turf, adjusted specifically for an open-air stadium with Cincinnati’s specific climate? Get medical professionals, heads of a Sports Medicine Department at a respected university, someone you absolutely trust to head the study.

You need a stats guy who will be able to resist manipulating the data one way or the other. Get a few high-integrity players as well, players whose opinion you trust. Do not choose consultants with connections to artificial turn companies, because they are going to give you a biased answer.

If you get the best and most unbiased people you can, I have a feeling I know what they will recommend.

References.

Tretter, J.C. “Only Natural Grass Can Level the NFL’s Playing Field,” NFLPA website, downloaded from https://www.si.com/nfl/browns/news/jc-tretter-speaks-on-field-surfaces 6/6/2021.

Mack, Christina D., Elliott B. Hershman, Robert B. Anderson, Michael J. Coughlin, Andrew S. McNitt, Rachel R. Sendor, and Richard W. Kent. “Higher rates of lower extremity injury on synthetic turf compared with natural turf among National Football League athletes: epidemiologic confirmation of a biomechanical hypothesis.” The American journal of sports medicine 47, no. 1 (2019): 189-196.

Krill, Michael K., James R. Borchers, Joshua T. Hoffman, Matthew L. Krill, and Timothy E. Hewett. “Effect of position, time in the season, and playing surface on Achilles tendon ruptures in NFL games: a 2009-10 to 2016-17 review.” The Physician and sports medicine 45, no. 3 (2017): 259-264.

Yurgil, Jacqueline L., T. Jason Meredith, and Peter Mitchell Martin. “Athletic play surfaces and injury risk.” Current sports medicine reports 20, no. 4 (2021): 188-192.

Saxton, Kourtney H. “DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF LOWER LIMB INJURIES ON DIFFERENTLY AGED ARTIFICIAL TURF.” (2017).

Mears, Aimée C., Paul Osei-Owusu, Andy R. Harland, Alun Owen, and Jonathan R. Roberts. “Perceived links between playing surfaces and injury: A worldwide study of elite association football players.” Sports medicine-open 4, no. 1 (2018): 1-11.

York, Philip J., Frank B. Wydra, and Kenneth J. Hunt. “Injuries to the great toe.” Current reviews in musculoskeletal medicine 10, no. 1 (2017): 104-112.

Nigg, B. M., and B. Segesser. “The influence of playing surfaces on the load on the locomotor system and on football and tennis injuries.” Sports medicine 5, no. 6 (1988): 375-385.