Bakhtiari: Will Take More Than Rodgers’ Injury to Eliminate Artificial Turf
GREEN BAY, Wis. – David Bakhtiari readily admits he’s not a doctor. He can’t say with certainty that Aaron Rodgers wouldn’t have torn his Achilles on Monday night had the New York Jets played on grass.
But the Green Bay Packers’ veteran left tackle does have 10 years of NFL experience to provide an informed opinion.
“You’ve got to understand the force going through your body, not only what you’re generating through your joints and your ankle, your knee and your hip, but also the force being applied to that opponent and what they have to do to counteract that,” Bakhtiari said on Wednesday.
Football was meant to be played on grass, Bakhtiari said. On an artificial surface like the one the Jets play on at their home stadium in New Jersey or the Packers will play on during Sunday's game at the Atlanta Falcons, cleats sometimes get “sucked” into the turf. That can lead to injuries like the one Rodgers sustained on Monday night or Rashan Gary sustained at Detroit last season.
In the case of his good friend Rodgers, his foot “gets stuck in there and it doesn’t come out,” Bakhtiari continued. “In my honest opinion, I think on grass, I think you could have had a different outcome. Could. I’m not alluding that it 100 percent would have been different or wouldn’t have, but I would have rather seen it on grass and then chalked it up to, ‘That’s football.’
Aaron Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles on this play vs. Buffalo (Photo by Vincent Carchietta/USA Today Sports Images)
“Because right now, there’s another variable. You can’t change anything else in that situation other than the surface. And that’s the one thing we know can add to injuries. You can’t change anything about Aaron’s body or Aaron’s age or anything like that, or the play. You can change the surface.”
Changing surfaces would require an enormous expenditure of money. Ever the realist, Bakhtiari doesn’t see the owners of teams who play on artificial surfaces opening their wallet. While most NFL owners want to win, they all want to make money.
Will a season-ending and career-altering injury to one of the greatest stars in the history of sport change that dynamic?
“I don’t think so,” Bakhtiari said.
What could change it? Outrage from the fans.
“I think, at the end of the day, it’s the owners’ decision and they only like to be in front of the spotlight when they want to, so they know how to manipulate and be behind,” Bakhtiari continued. “Honestly, I think the fans can play a huge part. You love this game, you appreciate this game, you guys have an outcry, I guarantee you the owners will do what’s right for the game and, correspondingly, for us players.
David Bakhtiari (Photo by Mike De Sisti/USA Today Sports Images)
“I think that’s huge. I know for all of us players, we love our fans, we appreciate you guys, and I think that would be a great way for the players and the fans to come together to do something better for everyone involved. I really think, at the end of the day, it’s a bottom-dollar thing. It’s a budgeting thing. It’s easy. I totally get it. If I’m a businessman, I would love to put a carpet out there, let people run around, then throw a stage on there the next day and have a concert, and then have someone lightly groom it.”
Bakhtiari has seen the NFL’s research that indicates the injury rate between games played on grass and artificial turf is relatively equal.
Bakhtiari doesn’t want to hear about numbers. He knows what his body feels like after playing 60 snaps over 3 hours.
“Anyone that has a different (opinion), then I’m like, ‘Go put on the pads, go play a game,” he said. “Come try and play a football game with us on grass; you see how you feel, anyway, from that. Now wait a week and go play a game on turf, and you tell me the difference. You’re going to be like, ‘Holy [crap]. [To heck with] that.’”
Bakhtiari, who dismissed a question about whether he’d sit out Sunday’s game at Atlanta, pointed with disgust to the upcoming World Cup. Games will be played at sites across the United States. The stadiums that have artificial turf will be switched to grass for the soccer games.
“Like, are you [expletive] kidding me? Then, why don’t you just put it (down) for us?” Bakhtiari said. “If we can grow grass in Green Bay in the winter, I don’t want to hear a {expletive] excuse with anyone and their stadiums. It’s dumb. It’s stupid. They want a carpet out there because they want to be able to put a stage on it, so they can have more events. That’s the bottom dollar, bottom line. Follow the money. Simple as that.”
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