Seven NFL stadiums are installing grass fields to comply with FIFA regulations for this summer's World Cup, and Fox Sports' Stu Holden believes there could be a ripple effect.Half the league’s stadiums use turf, despite NFLPA Executive Director Lloyd Howell saying that 92% of the league’s players prefer grass.Despite NFL players begging for grass and being told no, the stadiums had no choice but to, as NFLPA head J.C.Tretter once said, "roll out the green carpet of grass."CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COMWorkers install the pitch at New York New Jersey Stadium ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on May 7, 2026.
(Charly Triballeau/AFP)In a media availability on Friday, Tretter said the grass fields will be "a huge conversation" after the tournament, namely in the NFL."The fields will play so well that you're gonna have the NFL players continuing to make more noise about why they don't have grass in their stadiums and there's turf, because it can be done," Holden told reporters on Zoom."And FIFA has the most stringent, detailed, you know, strict process on what these fields have to play like, because they understand that the grass and the playing surface are the most important part of the game being good."If you don't have a good grass field, that makes it hard to see a good product on the field."The NFLPA has released several polls and studies showing that grass has been safer than turf, and Holden can apparently see why that is the case.Workers install the pitch at New York New Jersey Stadium, temporarily renamed from MetLife Stadium, ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on May 7, 2026.
(Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)STEELERS CAPTAIN CALLS HOME FIELD 'S---' AS PLAYERS COMPLAIN TO NFLPA ABOUT PLAYING SURFACE"There's nothing that can replicate what real grass fields, the watering the right way, that for a player is a dream, and something that we all just, you know, turf will nev...