Since 2020, San Francisco 49ers‘ defensive end Nick Bosa has been one of the NFL’s most vocal advocates for replacing artificial turf with natural grass fields. His fierce advocacy for natural grass comes directly from a career-altering injury, which occurred in Week 2 of that season. He has even criticised team executives for choosing to save maintenance money over protecting players’ careers.

And now, with the FIFA World Cup coming stateside, a mandate was passed requiring all NFL stadiums hosting tournament games to switch from turf to grass. While this would have been good news for Bosa, he was rather left disappointed to know that these changes were implemented only for the duration of the global sporting event.

“It’s a little bizarre,” Nick Bosa said in a press conference. “But what can you expect?”

With the FIFA World Cup 2026 around the corner, seven NFL stadiums, such as MetLife, AT&T, SoFi, Mercedes-Benz, and Lumen Stadiums, have ripped out their turf to meet FIFA’s strict natural grass mandate. Not just that, each field is required to have an automatic irrigation system, sufficient drainage, built-in vacuum and vents to keep the grass and soil aerated, and artificial grow lights to keep the grass healthy.

But right after this global tournament, these venues will reinstall the artificial turf, which has been a major reason for Nick Bosa’s disappointment. The NFL Players Association has time and again advocated for a league-wide switch to natural grass, citing both player preference and safety concerns.

The argument in favor of turf is that it’s durable. After all, these artificial surfaces can withstand concerts, harsh weather, and packed event calendars far better than natural grass.

Except for NFL games, stadiums also host college football matchups, soccer fixtures, and major entertainment events within the span of a few weeks. Maintaining a high-quality grass field under those conditions is both challenging and costly.

But as also pointed out by Rowan Fisher-Shotton of Newsweek, replacing grass isn’t the only expensive decision teams face. Losing a franchise quarterback or a star player to injury can come at an even greater cost.

Not only Bosa, but many players over the years have spoken out about the toll artificial turf takes on their bodies. They pointed out harder playing surfaces, less consistent footing, and the wear and tear that comes with spending an entire season on synthetic fields.

Even studies referenced by the NFLPA have found that non-contact lower-body injuries occur more frequently on artificial turf than on natural grass. Back in 2022. Bosa opened up about how the use of artificial turf is a major threat to player safety.

“I really think FieldTurf is a problem in the NFL,” Nick Bosa said while speaking with Albert Breer of SI. “And the turf I played on in New York was brand new. It was super soft, and apparently, they rolled a cement roller over it twice after the game because we had two ACLs and a bunch of other injuries on it. So I think if the NFL cared about our safety at all, then we’d all play on grass like top soccer teams do. So that’s kinda b.s. to me.”

Similarly, he and other 49ers stars like George Kittle, Solomon Thomas, and Mason Crosby signed a petition called #FlipTheTurf to raise awareness regarding this issue and hopefully push for change.

Now, as the push to play on grass fields over artificial turf continues, NFLPA executive director JC Tretter has reiterated the need for this change by sharing what 92% of players in the league want.

NFLPA continues to argue the need for grass fields over artificial turf

With NFL teams forced to follow FIFA orders to replace artificial turf with real grass, the NFLPA executive director, JC Tretter, has issued a statement reiterating the importance of the same in the NFL.

Tretter was on the Not Just Football podcast earlier this month, hosted by Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward, where he revealed how 92% of players want grass as their playing surface of choice.

“What we want is good grass fields. Good, solid fields,” NFLPA executive director JC Tretter said. “You don’t just want to pull out the [municipal] golf course grass. In every field, you want high-quality surfaces. I think one thing is understanding what our players care about. And there is something there that the data hasn’t been able to spit back out at us. Which, if you ask every player that we polled, 1,700 players, 92% say they want grass over turf.”

With most players preferring natural grass, the pressure on the NFL to make a permanent change continues to grow.