Artificial Turf: a Dangerous Playing Surface
Artificial Turf: A Dangerous Playing Surface
Some of the changes that have occurred in professional football were necessary for the game. Pads, helmets and other protective equipment helped the players safety. Other developments though, especially artificial turf, have proven themselves detrimental to the game and its participants. Just as changes were made earlier, they must be made again. Stadiums need to convert back to grass playing fields for the safety of football players, the satisfaction of the fans, and most importantly to improve the sport overall.
What Is Artificial Turf?
Like Kleenex or Xerox, AstroTurf has become the popular moniker for all artificial playing surfaces impersonating natural grass in the modern sports world. Born in the 1960's out of a military project to improve the physical fitness of urban teenagers, AstroTurf,along with its foreign and domestic impostors that were eventually squeezed out of the industry, was developed as a cheaper, more durable, low maintenance alternative to grass as a playing surface for football, baseball, and soccer. The original sales pitch rang true with all the sincerity of a beer commercial: All the fun of the regular grass, with only a third of the maintenance. Monsanto, AstroTurf's original manufacturer, had an ace in hole as well; grass doesn't grow very well in domes. Seduced by visions of conquering Mother Nature and paying a couple kids minimum wage to run a vacuum cleaner over the field between games, stadium executives across the nation bought into the AstroTurf movement. However, as the powers that be soon discovered f or themselves, AstroTurf proved to be neither cheaper nor lower maintenance than grass, and it had a nasty little side effect. Players, coaches, and trainers began to notice a substantial increase in the frequency of injuries on the improved traction and reduced cushion of AstroTurf. Doctors even identified and named a few new ones, common only to the artificial surface.
Some of the changes that have occurred in professional football were necessary for the game. Pads, helmets and other protective equipment helped the players safety. Other developments though, especially artificial turf, have proven themselves detrimental to the game and its participants. Just as changes were made earlier, they must be made again. Stadiums need to convert back to grass playing fields for the safety of football players, the satisfaction of the fans, and most importantly to improve the sport overall.
What Is Artificial Turf?
Like Kleenex or Xerox, AstroTurf has become the popular moniker for all artificial playing surfaces impersonating natural grass in the modern sports world. Born in the 1960's out of a military project to improve the physical fitness of urban teenagers, AstroTurf,along with its foreign and domestic impostors that were eventually squeezed out of the industry, was developed as a cheaper, more durable, low maintenance alternative to grass as a playing surface for football, baseball, and soccer. The original sales pitch rang true with all the sincerity of a beer commercial: All the fun of the regular grass, with only a third of the maintenance. Monsanto, AstroTurf's original manufacturer, had an ace in hole as well; grass doesn't grow very well in domes. Seduced by visions of conquering Mother Nature and paying a couple kids minimum wage to run a vacuum cleaner over the field between games, stadium executives across the nation bought into the AstroTurf movement. However, as the powers that be soon discovered f or themselves, AstroTurf proved to be neither cheaper nor lower maintenance than grass, and it had a nasty little side effect. Players, coaches, and trainers began to notice a substantial increase in the frequency of injuries on the improved traction and reduced cushion of AstroTurf. Doctors even identified and named a few new ones, common only to the artificial surface.