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Seven NFL stadiums are installing turf fields to comply with FIFA regulations for this summer’s World Cup, and Fox Sports’ Stu Holden thinks there could be a ripple effect.
Half of the league’s stadiums use turf, although NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell has said that 92% of league players prefer grass.
Despite NFL players begging for grass and being told no, stadiums have had no choice but to, as NFLPA chief JC Tretter once said, “roll out the green carpet of grass.”
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Workers install the pitch at New York New Jersey Stadium ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in East Rutherford, New Jersey, May 7, 2026. (Charly Triballeau/AFP)
During a press briefing Friday, Tretter said turf fields would be “a huge conversation” after the tournament, especially in the NFL.
“The fields will play so well that NFL players will continue to make more noise about why they don’t have turf in their stadiums and there is turf, because it can be done,” Holden told reporters over Zoom. “And FIFA has the strictest, most detailed, you know, strictest process on how these pitches should play, because they understand that the turf and the playing surface is the most important part for the game to be good.
“If you don’t have a good grass field, it’s hard to see a good product on the field.”
The NFLPA has released several surveys and studies showing that grass is safer than turf, and Holden can apparently see why that’s the case.
Workers install the pitch at New York New Jersey Stadium, temporarily renamed MetLife Stadium, ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in East Rutherford, New Jersey, May 7, 2026. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
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“There’s nothing that can replicate what real turf fields are like, watering the right way, that’s a player’s dream, and something that all of us, you know, turf will never be able to replicate that from a turf standpoint.”
It was announced late last year that every NFL team would receive “a library of approved and accredited NFL fields” before the start of the 2026 season. Any new field will have to immediately meet these standards, and all teams will have two years to achieve them. Grass and synthetic turf fields will be subject to the new standards.
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 8: General view of the NFL logo painted on the field before the NFL Super Bowl LX football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium on February 8, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
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The NFL has no plans to require natural turf fields. The league’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, said there were no “statistically significant differences” in lower extremity injuries or concussions that could be attributed to the type of playing surface or a specific surface**, despite** widespread player preferences for turf fields and complaints about surfaces such as that at MetLife Stadium, where the New York Giants and Jets play.
