The potentially season-altering injury that New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered on Monday night came with a very frustrating underlying factor for a lot of NFL players and fans.
While it didn’t necessarily look like this was the direct cause of Rodgers’ getting hurt, the moment happened on the brand-new artificial turf field at the Jets’ MetLife Stadium.
As many NFL players have in the past, Rodgers’ old Green Bay Packers teammate David Bakhtiari expressed his extreme displeasure with NFL stadiums using artificial turf fields instead of grass, with the argument being that athletes are less likely to sustain serious injury on grass playing fields.
Congrats @nfl. How many more players have to get hurt on ARTIFICIAL TURF??! You care more about soccer players than us. You plan to remove all artificial turf for the World Cup coming up. So clearly it’s feasible.
I’m sick of this..Do better!— David Bakhtiari (@DavidBakhtiari) September 12, 2023
The ongoing debate about what’s the safest turf for football players to play on might not settle anytime soon, but Bakhtiari’s fiery message to the NFL will grow louder with other players in the league if Rodgers’ injury is indeed serious.
Artificial turf might not be the culprit for Monday night’s big injury, but it might well be the fixture point for where the conversation goes.
Field issues were a major point of discussion after Super Bowl 57, and it doesn’t look like it’ll subside as an NFL hot-button issue anytime soon.
