The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Tennessee Titans 24-20 in Music City on Sunday, September 20. While the game had its moments, perhaps the most bizarre visuals were of team staffers cooling down players’ shoes with water.
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The game was played in blistering heat, and it troubled the players enough to comment on the temperature. Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is one of them.
“Turf in general radiates heat more than f—ing grass ever will,” Kelce said on the New Heights podcast. “… You shouldn’t be allowed to do that. You shouldn’t be allowed to put players on a field that does that. … NFL’s got to figure something out for s— like that. That’s insane.
“We got to get something. Like I understand if the turf drains water, but how does it f—ing handle heat?”
That many f-bombs dropped by Travis Kelce in all seriousness is perhaps a true reflection of the turmoil players and staffers went through in that game. The turf temperature was an alarming 157 degrees hot; no wonder the heat has people calling for better playing conditions.
During post-game interviews, Eagles offensive lineman Cam Jurgens revealed he had switched multiple pairs of cleats because the rubber soles were melting. He could feel his feet burning and aching during the game.
“Halftime was like a NASCAR pit crew helping me get ready for the second half,” he said. “That turf was just radiating.”
Titans safety Amani Hooker revealed that the midsoles of his cleats had melted off completely, while Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata wondered if the plastic bases of his shoes softening from the heat was what had caused him to roll his ankle twice.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni also needed an IV after suffering from heat exhaustion while simply coaching his players from the sidelines.
“It just sucks everything out of you,” Mailata said, also firing up an age-old debate.
“I’ve never thought about how hot a stadium can be if it’s turf. [The heat] just sits there and bounces up into you. [The union] have got to bring it up. This is why we want all grass fields, to create a standard of play in the league where we’re not putting players in dangerous positions if we don’t have to.”
The logic is pretty simple: natural grass is able to cool itself by releasing water vapour into the air. Synthetic turfs don’t have that luxury. A Penn State study found that for air temperatures between 79°F and 85°F, synthetic turf surfaces measured between 120°F and 146°F.
A 2024 review in the International Journal of Biometeorology found that synthetic turf surface temperature was consistently higher than natural grass across selected studies. The differences ranged from roughly 9°C to 34°C in direct sunlight.
As expected, calls for the NFL adopting natural grass fields were raised once again. Players have long advocated for it, particularly citing the allegedly low risk of injuries, but the shocking conditions in the Tennessee game also drew attention to another reason why the move should be considered.
“Tennessee is a f—ing lovely place,” Kelce added. ” … You could easily put grass down. Easily.”
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The game-time temperature was 95 degrees with a real-feel temperature of 105. The high heat in late September does sound odd, Tennessee was already under a heat dome during the last few weeks.
A heat dome traps heat in the affected area, which is characterized by low cloud cover. That allows ample entry of sunlight, but no way for the huge amounts of heat to escape. Meteorologists had warned of heat-related occurrences too.
On September 15, Memphis was at 99ºF (37ºC), and Nashville went as high as 100ºF (38ºC), per NASA. The latter temperature broke the daily-high record from 1927. According to the National Weather Service, Nashville alone set the record four times between July and September.
Per the weather service, Sept. 21 was expected to be the last day of “well above-normal temperatures” across the Nashville area. The Philadelphia Eagles game, unfortunately, happened just the day before the heat was supposed to end.
Fans were in for a tough time too. FOX Nashville’s Johnny Maffei wrote on X that Nissan Stadium would feel like the “NisSauna” because of the heat. Perhaps Titans fans saved themselves a lot of pain, both from the heat and from the loss to the Eagles.