San Francisco 49ers star George Kittle is paying close attention to the playing surfaces for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Although this year's World Cup matches are being hosted at NFL stadiums, temporary natural grass was installed at venues such as MetLife Stadium and SoFi Stadium. Seven of the U.S. stadiums being used for the World Cup usually have synthetic turf down, but FIFA made sure they got the surface their top players needed.
Kittle, who suffered a torn Achilles in January, was quite impressed by SoFi Stadium's playing surface for Friday's match between the United States and Paraguay.
In fact, Kittle is begging for the NFL to keep SoFi's field the way it is.
"USA USA USA," Kittle wrote on the platform formerly known as Twitter. "Also this grass looks great on Sofi’s field… wonder if we could get that all season"
© Bill Streicher-Imagn Images.
Kittle isn't the only NFL player pushing for this change.
New York Giants offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor didn't hold back when discussing MetLife Stadium's switch from turf to natural grass.
“I’m going into year 10, and I can say wholeheartedly that grass feels way better than turf,” Eluemunor said, via NBC News. “With MetLife getting grass, obviously it’s cool for FIFA and the World Cup. It’s one of the biggest stages in the world but, at the same time, the NFL as a whole is one of the most profitable businesses in the world, and so you would think that us as players would have a say in the fields that we get to play on."
Despite all the outrage in the NFL community, it's unlikely these stadiums will adopt natural grass for the 2026 regular season.
"You have other players who like playing on the turf field because it’s faster," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell claims. "So you’ve got mixed opinions. What we want to go on is science, we want to go on what’s the best from an injury standpoint."
The NFL has stated multiple times that artificial turf hasn't led to an uptick in injuries. Until the data goes against that statement, they won't be pressed to make changes.
