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Green Bay Packers offensive tackle David Bakhtiari maintains his stance that the artificial turf in MetLife Stadium had a role in the devastating injury that New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sustained last Monday.
Rodgers sustained an Achilles injury that ended his season after getting sacked by Leonard Floyd on their first drive of the game. He was carted off the field and initially ruled out due to an ankle injury. However, following an MRI on Tuesday, the Jets' worst fears were confirmed.
In the wake of Rodgers' exit from the game, his former Packers teammate and good friend in Bakhtiari quickly took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to pin the blame on the turf that MetLife Stadium is using as the culprit for the injury. In a NSFW rant, Bakhtiari exclaimed: “WTF!!!! That injury is TURF related. Can we put an end to this s**t already.”
Now, in a recent interview, Bakhtiari doubled down on that take and explained in detail why he firmly believes the turf is a huge factor that led to the injury.
“I'm not a doctor. I don't think that it was the sole reason, but I think anyone who can observe the play–and I can tell you from personal experience–if you don't wear turf shoes and you're wearing molded or especially detached, and your cleats go in the ground, they will be stuck there,” Bakhtiari said, per Ryan Wood of USA Today.
The Packers OT added that he understands why young players like Aaron Jones like playing on turf, noting that “they can grip, and then it turns into a track meet.” While that's the pro for him, it does come with cons. The 31-year-old veteran shared that one must “understand the force going through your body, not only what you're generating through your joints and your ankle, your knee and your hip, but also the force being applied to that opponent.”
In Aaron Rodgers' case, David Bakhtiari pointed out that Rodgers' foot clearly got stuck in the turf, which he believes could have worsened the situation. Considering that, he couldn't help but imagine what would have been the result had the Jets been playing on grass.
Looks pretty clear to me that Aaron Rodgers’ ankle got caught in the turf. MetLife claims another one pic.twitter.com/d4UZx8dD8D
— Andrew Harts (@AndrewHarts) September 12, 2023
“In my honest opinion, I think on grass–I think you could have had a different outcome. You could. I'm not eluding that it 100 percent would have or wouldn't have, but I would have rather seen it on grass and then just chalked it up to, ‘That's football.' Because, right now, there's another variable,” Bakhtiari added.
“You can't change anything else in that situation other than the surface, and that's the one thing we know that can add to injuries. You can't change anything about Aaron's body or Aaron's age or anything like that, or the play. But you can change the surface.”
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Unfortunately for the football world, the damage has been done and Rodgers is out for the season. Hopefully, though, the NFL takes a look at Bakhtiari's complaint and see if they can do something about the issue. After all, he's not alone with that sentiment.
NFL turf a big problem? Aaron Rodgers' injury proves it
After Aaron Rodgers' injury, Bills quarterback Josh Allen admitted that he himself is also not a big fan of turf fields. He pointed out that they have been pushing to change turf fields to grass for a long time now, but it seems their concerns haven't been taken seriously.
“The way our bodies feel after turf games, or after turf practices, is significantly different than on grass,” Allen explained.
For what it's worth, NFLPA president Lloyd Howell also recently released a statement on their push for all NFL fields to use grass fields over turf following the Jets' Rodgers setback. Howell noted that there are data to prove that grass is a safer choice than turf, and if the league's concern is the cost of using and maintaining a grass field, he put it into perspective by emphasizing that it will cost the league more if their top players like Rodgers keep getting injured because of it.
“Moving all stadium fields to high quality natural grass surfaces is the easiest decision the NFL can make,” Howell said. “The players overwhelmingly prefer it and the data is clear that grass is simply safer than artificial turf.
“It is an issue that has been near the top of the players' list during my team visits and one I have raised with the NFL. While we know there is an investment to making this change, there is a bigger cost to everyone in our business if we keep losing our best players to unnecessary injuries. It makes no sense that stadiums can flip over to superior grass surfaces when the World Cup comes, or soccer clubs come to visit for exhibition games in the summer, but inferior artificial surfaces are acceptable for our own players. This is worth the investment and it simply needs to change now.”
It remains to be seen what the NFL will do with regards to the issue, but as the calls for them to take action increase, it might be hard for Roger Goodell to ignore them.