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The NFL faces two major issues as the 2026 season approaches: how fans watch the games and the ongoing debate over playing surfaces.
The former has been the subject of controversy, so much so that there was a hearing earlier this month regarding the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, as fans pay out the wazoo to watch games exclusively on streaming sites.
However, former NFL tight end-turned-FOX analyst Greg Olsen understands that the league is a money-making business.
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Greg Olsen, NFL analyst and former player, discusses how Zebra data helps teams analyze and improve player performance and how RFID technology improves the fan experience in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 5, 2025. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
“I get it. From an unbiased, high-level perspective, I get it. I understand the frustrations and why this conversation is out there. The amount of different streamers and subscriptions and I have to have cable to go with my cable. I get all that — I’m also a realist,” Olsen recently told Pakinomist Digital.
“Even though I may not have designed it this way and may not always agree with it, I think we just have to operate within the rules that we all live in. This is the modern era and I think people will adapt. I think networks will pivot and adjust, I think cable channels will pivot and adjust, no different than how these streamers will continue to evolve themselves at some point.”
Netflix and NFL signs announce the NFL’s two Christmas Day highlight games streaming live on Netflix in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 1, 2024. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
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The conversation with the playing surface is intensifying this summer as 11 NFL stadiums host FIFA World Cup games, which will be played on grass. Out of these 11 venues, six of them use grass, but were forced to switch to accommodate FIFA regulations.
Half of the league’s stadiums use grass, despite NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell saying that 92% of the league’s players prefers grass. Despite NFL players begging for grass and being told no, the stadiums had no choice but to, as NFLPA chief JC Tretter once said, “roll out the green carpet of grass.”
However, Olsen pulled back a little on the “interesting” conversation.
“When they get hurt, they don’t like playing on grass. And when they play on bad grass in the rain, and they play on bad grass up in the Northeast and Midwest in the winter at the end of the season, the footing is bad, it’s sloppy, and nobody can run, the skill guys don’t feel fast, they can’t figure out their shoes there, so I never think where it is, and I never think that’s going to make everybody happy,” Olsen said enviously.
The NFL logo is seen on the field after the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York on December 28, 2025. (Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
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“If they made a rule that everybody was turf, people would be outraged. If every field had to be traditional, natural grass, I think everybody south of Mason-Dixon would be fine. I think late in the season Northeast games would be very difficult. . . . Just Mother Nature. It is what it is.”
