I've read all the studies, I also read all the ones back in the day that said we gotta switch from grass to field turf, which is why it's very humorous to me. The studies don't take into account a ton of variables with just coming to that conclusion. And I apologize about my rant here, but the reality is we have finger pointing going on and no one will win until how the sports train changes.
It's comical really. "Astro turf is causing all sorts of injuries, gotta move to grass." Move to grass and "grass is causing all sorts of injuries gotta move to field turf." Move to field turf "field turf is causing all sorts of injuries gotta move to grass." Wait, weren't we just there? Then the people just throw poop against the wall and say "well we can grow grass better now" which is an unbelievable talk-track. If you saw a study with astro-turf in the 90s compared to field turf nowadays it would say we need to move to astro-turf because there were less injuries.
Purdue has had grass this entire time, and all of our players and coaches say it was the worst field in the B1G. We had guys blowing knees and breaking legs in warm-ups there. So now if you go to grass you have the variables of "are you growing grass good enough" or "is the sprinkler in the right spot" or "is the grounds crew good enough"? Further, can you have volleyball day, concerts, graduations, fan day, etc. on a grass Memorial Stadium? No matter how "good of grass you can grow" wouldn't that cause holes, bumps, imbalances in the surface? Trust me, in a decade we will be going back to "field turf just came out with a newer version that's much better than grass" as the injuries stay the same or heaven-forbid even get worse. A player from Lincoln Northeast was almost single-handedly responsible for getting field turf at Seacrest after destroying his leg late in the year there.
I'm on the side of Justin Verlander. The playing surface isn't causing all the pitcher arm injuries, the playing surface isn't causing all the injuries in football. We are in an era with technology where you can measure spin rate for pitchers, mph for the football players, and we train all year round to increase those to their maximum and go 100% at all times. Bodies are getting bigger, faster, and stronger, while we use the technology to maximize them and the strain is constant and almost never-ending. Years ago, players used to crosstrain a bit and it got us away from the overtraining. In the 90s the football team had multiple intramural teams, just one of the many examples of things that have changed.
