'It Sucks!' Rams Stars Cooper Kupp, Jalen Ramsey Speak Out Against Fake Turf
Ready to kick grass? Some of the most prominent Los Angeles Rams are not.
After a slew of injuries on artificial turf across the league, Rams receiver Cooper Kupp and cornerback Jalen Ramsey are among those who want to see the 30 NFL stadiums move to grass fields for their playing surfaces. Their comments come after familiar foes were lost to noncontact injuries in an interconference showdown at SoFi Stadium.
The Rams' Inglewood co-tenants, the Los Angeles Chargers, lost star defender J.C. Jackson for the season with a patellar tendon rupture. Last week's visitors, the Seattle Seahawks, took home a 37-23 decision but did so without D.K. Metcalf, who is now a game-time decision for the New York Giants' visit on Sunday afternoon.
Kupp, a face of the Rams' SoFi era that began in 2020, kept his words thin yet firm when asked about the situation as the stadium prepares to re-don the blue and yellow colors for the San Francisco 49ers in another Sunday contest (1:25 p.m. PT, Fox).
"Hands down, we should be playing on grass," Kupp said twice in his weekly comments. "It's not even close. I know there's stuff going around the league right now, there are some issues."
"That's all I'm going to say."
SoFi Stadium is one of 14 NFL establishments that host games on artificial turf, the other 16 going with the grass that Kupp desires. Ramsey was more than willing to back up his teammate when he came to the Los Angeles podium a day later. The outspoken defender is more than happy to "play on concrete," for what it's worth ... but he'd prefer grass.
Artificial turf has been pushed by some as be a safer surface, but Ramsey isn't buying it.
"I feel like (grass) is better for you. It's better on your joints, it's better on your body. This might sound a little funky or a little weird, but if you’re out there playing, all the players would understand what I'm about to say, it feels different. You can feel the grass differently than you can feel the turf.
"The grass might have a little give to it. The way you plant, the way you break, the feel of it is better."
Ramsey acknowledged that any potential issues with the surface would be "a little bit" of a problem, but there's little, if anything, the Rams can do about it. He's more than willing to take to the SoFi surface on Sunday, but he's short on answers for the time being.
"Business goes into it, all other types of stuff go into all these decisions when it's coming to making a mega-stadium like this. So it's just part of it. It is what it is. It's part of it," said Ramsey, who's Rams (3-3) can ill-afford another another issue as they try to break away from the NFC West logjam that has kept all four teams within striking distance of the division title. "Everybody’s got to deal with it so it's not like something we can like really complain about, you know what I mean?
"Everybody has to deal with it. But it sucks, though, to see injuries like that regardless of if that was just a freak accident or whether it was because of the turf or whatever. It just sucks to see so many guys getting injured.”
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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