MetLife Stadium Injuries – In Week 1, two Ravens players got hurt at MetLife Stadium and had to be taken out of the season. Now, five weeks later, they are going back with their fingers crossed. In Week 1, offensive tackle Ja’Wuan James tore his Achilles tendon, and cornerback Kyle Fuller tore his ACL when his shoe got stuck in the grass. Artificial turf has been criticized for putting players out of the game for a long time. This season, when top Giants wide receiver Sterling Shephard hurt his knee without being hit, the criticism got worse.
Giants running back Saquon Barkley said he is “not really a fan” of turf. “No one likes the turf,” running back J.K. Dobbins said Thursday. “As the older guys would say, like, ‘Man, it hurts my body.’ Maybe that’s true. Maybe I’ll start feeling that as I continue on in my career. But it is terrible.”
Coach John Harbaugh made the following remarks on grass surfaces following the Ravens’ Week 1 contest at MetLife Stadium:
“Everybody in this league should do everything they can to put the best surface out there. How much is invested in the players who go out there and play? Our league really is — it’s a player-driven league. And we want those guys to have the best of the best, especially surfaces to play on … That turf [at MetLife] was matted down, it was packed down, and it was a little tight. Maybe that’s how it’s supposed to be, I don’t know. But that’s what I saw. It was a little tough.”
Harbaugh and the Ravens have more pressing concerns than the playing surface going into the game on Sunday. The Giants, who are 4-1, provide a formidable test to a Baltimore squad coming off a significant victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Calais Campbell, a seasoned defensive tackle for the Ravens, is a key voice with the NFLPA and is working on a long-term project with them. In order to convince the NFL to standardize fields, Campbell stated that the NFLPA is seeking to gather statistics to support their assertions that turf is more hazardous to players’ health than grass.
The most important thing, according to Campbell, is to keep the players healthy so that we can be on the field and perform well while entertaining the crowd. “It’s undoubtedly something that the NFLPA’s executive committee has been considering. The NFL often has an open mind. They simply want information and numbers.” In 2016, the Ravens and M&T Bank Stadium upgraded to a grass field. While Campbell is aware that renovating fields costs money and takes time, he still hopes MetLife Stadium is modernized soon.
“This field definitely is one that you’ve got to go out there and play football and just hope God is protecting you out there,” Campbell said. “You have to block it out. You can’t sit there and worry about it because that’s when the worst happens. “I love playing on grass. The grass is the best field you can play on, in my opinion. Some turf fields are better than others, though, and we need a standard across the NFL.”
News from SNBC13.com