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After watching his teammate, wide receiver Sterling Shepard, go down with a season-ending knee injury in Week 3, New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley has shared his thoughts on the controversial playing surface at MetLife Stadium.
Shepard suffered the non-contact injury while running a route late in the fourth quarter of New York’s 23-16 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night. After an MRI evaluation, he was diagnosed with a torn ACL and declared out for the season.
Here’s a clip of Shepard’s recent injury, via ACL Recovery Club on Twitter:
Last December, Shepard ruptured his Achilles’ tendon during a game against the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium.
Although there’s no way to know for certain whether the playing surface played a role in either of Shepard’s injuries, the turf at MetLife Stadium has been widely criticized over the years. While speaking to reporters in the locker room on Thursday, Barkley gave a measured take on turf surfaces in general.
“At the end of the day, [I’m] just blessed to play some football, [to] go out there and play on Sunday,” Barkley said (h/t Giants Videos on Twitter). “Personally, I’m not really a fan of turf. I’m starting to understand when I was a rookie and older guys would complain about the turf. I guess you start having a little more understanding to that. But I don’t really look too deep into that. … I just try to go out there and perform at a high level and help my team win. That’s something that I can’t control, so I try to control what I can control.”
Sandwiched between the clichés, Barkley shared his true feelings: He’s not a fan of turf. It’s more than likely that many other players across the NFL feel the same way.
So far this season, however, the turf at MetLife Stadium has not stopped Barkley from making big plays. He produced 88 yards from scrimmage at home against the Carolina Panthers in Week 2, then added 126 more scrimmage yards (and a touchdown) against the Cowboys in Week 3.
Barkley’s best game of the year, though, came on a natural grass surface in Week 1. While visiting the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium, the fifth-year running back exploded for a season-high 194 yards from scrimmage, including a 68-yard touchdown run.
Click here for a full list of NFL stadiums and their playing surfaces.
The Information on Turf Safety is Conflicting and Incomplete
There are many opinions on the safety of turf compared to natural grass. The NFL maintains that there is no correlation between turf playing surfaces and increased risk of injury.
Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News asked NFL executive Jeff Miller for comment on the MetLife Stadium turf controversy this week.
“NFL exec VP Jeff Miller, asked about MetLife Stadium turf, says league studies all injuries [and] surfaces, [and] does so ‘especially significantly’ after non-contact injuries,” Leonard wrote on Twitter. “But ‘big picture’ he says difference in lower-extremity injury rate on synthetic [versus] natural grass is negligible.”
Others in the media, such as Jordan Schultz of The Score, report different information.
“Gutted over the Sterling Shepard news,” Schultz wrote on Twitter. “Many players have since relayed an important message to me over the past 12 hours: Every NFL stadium NEEDS natural grass. We KNOW it’s much safer. Specifically, players have a 28% higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries on turf.”
The 28 percent figure that Schultz cites came from an open letter NFLPA President JC Tretter wrote back in 2020, which cited official NFL injury data from 2012-18.
Giants’ Upcoming Stadiums and Playing Surfaces
The Giants will host the Chicago Bears at MetLife Stadium for another home game this weekend, but in Week 5 they will travel to London to take on the Green Bay Packers. That game will be played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which also features a turf playing surface.
New York’s next game on natural grass will come in Week 7, when the Giants travel to Jacksonville to play the Jaguars at TIAA Bank Field.
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