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Seven NFL stadiums are installing grass fields to comply with FIFA rules for this summer’s World Cup, and Fox Sports’ Stu Holden believes there could be a ripple effect.
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.”
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Workers install the pitch at the New York New Jersey Stadium ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on May 7, 2026. (Charly Triballeau/AFP)
In a press release Friday, Tretter said the grass fields will be “a huge conversation” after the tournament, namely in the NFL.
“The players are going to play so well that you’re going to have the NFL players continue to make more noise about why they don’t have grass in their stadiums, and there’s grass because it can be done,” Holden told reporters on Zoom. “And FIFA has the most rigorous, detailed, you know, rigorous process of how these pitches should be played because they understand that the grass and the playing surface is the most important part of the game when it’s good.
“If you don’t have a good grass field, it makes it difficult to see a good product on the field.”
The NFLPA has released several polls and studies showing that grass has been safer than turf, and Holden can apparently see why.
Workers install the pitch at New York New Jersey Stadium, temporarily renamed from MetLife Stadium, ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on May 7, 2026. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
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“There’s nothing that can replicate what real grass pitches, watering the right way, that for a player is a dream and something that we all just, you know, turf will never be able to replicate that from a grass perspective.”
It was announced late last year that each NFL team will be provided with “a library of approved and accredited NFL fields” before the 2026 season begins. Any new field must meet these standards immediately, and all teams will have two years to reach them. Both grass and artificial turf pitches will be subject to the new standards.
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 8: A general view of the NFL logo painted on the field prior to the NFL Super Bowl LX football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium on February 8, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
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The NFL has no plans to require natural grass fields. The league’s chief physician, Dr. Allen Sills, said there are no “statistically significant differences” in lower extremity injuries or concussions attributable to the type of playing surface or a specific surface**, despite **widespread player preferences for grass fields and complaints about surfaces like that at Jents Stadium and MetLife Stadium.
