Lions' Jason Cabinda Agrees Turf Fields 'Taking Too Many Guys Out'
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The NFLPA has now stepped up its efforts to protect players from incurring injuries playing on turf fields.
JC Tretter, president of the NFL Players Association, explained on social media that efforts must be made by the league and several teams to immediately modify and remove turf fields.
"There are currently seven teams that use slit film in their stadiums (Giants, Jets, Lions, Vikings, Saints, Colts, and Bengals). The NFL and its experts have agreed with this data and acknowledge that the slit film field is less safe," the NFLPA explained. "Player leadership wrote a letter to the NFL this week demanding the immediate removal of these fields and a ban on them going forward, both in stadiums and for practice fields."
The Lions announced a new field turf back in 2019, and have partnered with FieldTurf since Ford Field opened in 2002.
"We've partnered with FieldTurf since the inaugural season at Ford Field because of our confidence in their proven product," said Lions team president Rod Wood, via the team's website. "With ongoing enhancements in turf technology, we are embracing the opportunity to work with FieldTurf to install their best available playing surface and maintain the highest standards of safety for all players at our stadium."
Fullback Jason Cabinda also took to social media on Saturday to explain his point of view regarding playing surfaces in the NFL.
"We want to be on the field, coaches want us on the field, and so do the fans," Cabinda posted on social media. "Turf is taking too many guys out of the game #SaferFields."
The NFLPA concluded its request, with the following message to the NFL: "As players, we have a simple message for the league: stop with the lip service, stop with the media spin, stop pretending you care. And if you actually do care, take the actionable steps to fix the problems our union has identified, especially those issues you actually agree with."
According to Jeff Miller, the NFL Executive Vice President of Communications, Public Affairs and Policy, “As the NFLPA knows from the meeting of our Joint Field Surface Safety & Performance Committee earlier this month, there was no difference between the number of injuries on synthetic surfaces versus grass. While slit film surfaces, one type of synthetic material, have 2-3 more injuries per year, most of them are ankle sprains -- a low-burden injury -- whereas slit film also sees a lower rate of fewer high-burden ACL injuries compared to other synthetic fields. As a result, the league and NFLPA’s joint experts did not recommend any changes to surfaces at the meeting but agreed more study is needed.”
