Amid complaints and warnings about the state of the field at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro for Sunday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens, the NFL players union (NFLPA) has been repeatedly asked to say or do something about it.
On Friday, NFLPA president JC Tretter finally broke his silence on the issue, giving the “NFLPA’s perspective” on the controversy. In essence, Tretter said that the NFLPA has repeatedly expressed concerns for the safety of the players and the steps they’ve taken to express that.
“There have been a lot of questions about the field surface in Brazil, and I wanted to provide the NFLPA’s perspective,” Tretter began. “Our number one priority is the health and safety of our players. The concern heading into this week was that the field would be loose, patchy, and lead to excessive slipping. Those conditions are generally more of a playability and performance issue than a significant injury concern.
“But safety isn’t the only standard. Players should be able to perform at the level they expect of themselves and that fans expect from them. A thin, slick field may not present the same risks as a surface with too much traction, but it still affects performance and the quality of the game.
“We’ve been in regular communication with the league about the field. Both the NFLPA’s and the league’s field experts have been on the ground in Brazil for days, monitoring conditions and working to make the surface as safe and playable as possible for Sunday.
“Based on our experts’ assessment, the field needed better traction and stability. They recommended reinforced stitching to help the surface hold together and brought in equipment to reinforce as much of the field as possible before the game. Our experts will remain engaged and continue evaluating conditions through kickoff.
“The work happening this week also highlights two larger issues.
“First, we need field standards that account for both safety and performance. The NFL, NFLPA, and our field and engineering experts spend a lot of time working on these issues, and we’ve made progress. But we’re not where we need to be yet. We can’t have surfaces that melt players’ cleats, like we saw in Nashville last week. We can’t have frozen fields that create unnecessary risks. The best athletes in the world should be playing on surfaces that meet the same standard of excellence we expect from them every week.
“Second, this reinforces one of our concerns about international expansion. Two of the three games played in Brazil have had field-related issues. That’s not a coincidence. This time of year makes it extremely challenging to maintain the kind of grass surface we expect at the NFL level.
“Our guys are exceptional at what they do, and I’m confident they’ll put on a terrific game in Rio this week. They always do. But we owe it to them to provide the best possible opportunity to succeed. Players can overcome a lot. But they shouldn’t have to overcome the field.
“The NFL has been clear they want to continue to grow the game internationally. However, growth alone cannot be the goal. The goal has to be growing the game while maintaining the standards our players deserve. If we can’t do both, then we need to make different decisions.”
Not good enough?
Fans weren’t impressed by the statement and many called out Tretter for not pushing back hard enough on the international games that they can’t stand.
“All of that to basically say ‘yeah, we know the field sucks but we’re going to make them play on it no matter what.’ There should have always been a contingency plan that if the field wasnt ready the week before the game, that the game reverts back to the home team’s stadium,” one user wrote on X.
“If you cared about players safety you’d get rid of all turf fields,” another replied.
“Stop playing international games. The fans and players hate it,” wrote a third.
“Stop playing international games!”
© Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Unfortunately for Tretter and the fans, the NFL doesn’t have any plans to end its international series anytime soon. That means that field conditions may continue to be a challenge in places that aren’t NFL-ready on a year-round basis.
Hopefully there aren’t any serious injuries in Brazil on Sunday or Tretter might have a real crisis on his hands.
