George Kittle is doing the Lord’s work.
The San Francisco 49ers tight end attended the FIFA World Cup Final between Spain and Argentina at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, and he used the platform to send a very direct message to Roger Goodell and the NFL. Keep the grass.
MetLife had real grass installed for the World Cup. The plan is to rip it up and reinstall the artificial turf ahead of the 2026 NFL regular season. That decision has been, to put it mildly, unpopular with NFL players.
Kittle posted from the stadium during the final. Grass looks great at MetLife! Can we keep it that way NFL?? Then he followed up after the game. Grass still looks great! Let’s use grass instead of turf @NFL!
This is not the first time Kittle has publicly pushed the league on this. He has been one of the loudest voices in the NFLPA’s ongoing campaign to convert every stadium to natural grass. And he has a very personal reason for caring. Kittle tore his Achilles last playoffs on the hybrid turf at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. He came back for training camp this summer, but the recovery was longer than expected and cost him almost the entire spring workout program.
He is not alone. Breece Hall, Aaron Rodgers, Odell Beckham Jr., and dozens of other high-profile players have all publicly pushed the league to make the switch. The NFLPA commissioned a study last year that found the injury rate on artificial turf was significantly higher than on natural grass, particularly for lower-body soft-tissue injuries.
The NFL, for its part, has shown almost zero appetite for change. Owners like turf because it is cheaper to maintain, more durable in cold weather, and easier to schedule concerts and other events on. That last point is the real driver. Every NFL stadium these days is a multi-purpose facility, and grass is a pain to keep alive when you are also hosting Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and the college football conference championship game.
So Kittle is not going to win this fight, at least not immediately. But the fact that MetLife just proved it is possible to install high-quality natural grass in a modern NFL stadium on short notice takes away one of the league’s favorite excuses.
The MetLife grass was rated by FIFA as world-class for the World Cup. Argentina played on it. Spain played on it. Nobody complained about the surface. Compare that to the Achilles tear rate on NFL turf and the injury data starts to tell a very obvious story.
Kittle is not just tweeting for engagement here. He is trying to save careers, including his own. The NFL should listen, even if they will not.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
