Although the Ohio State athletic department has had conversations about the field at Ohio Stadium amid calls from the NFL Players’ Association to ban the type of turf the Buckeyes play on, Ohio State does not currently plan to replace the playing surface inside the Shoe.
The NFLPA recently launched a campaign to ban fields made of slit-film turf, a type of turf which uses various fake blades of grass rather than a single blade, citing research that indicates slit-film turf “has a statistically significant higher risk of (lower extremity) injury than the League average,” according to Pro Football Talk. That style of turf, which is currently used by seven NFL teams (New York Giants, New York Jets, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints, Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals), is also utilized at Ohio Stadium.
Over the weekend, many NFL players promoted the campaign on Twitter using the hashtag #SaferFields, including former Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa, whose Buckeye career ended when he suffered a core muscle injury against TCU while playing on turf at AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys (which uses dual fiber turf). Bosa has advocated for all NFL games to be played on natural grass.
Nfl says they care about player safety yet they cant put us on a natural surface #saferfields
— Nick Bosa (@nbsmallerbear) November 12, 2022
Amid a season in which Ohio State has dealt with a considerable share of injuries despite playing seven of its first 10 games at home, there have been renewed calls from Buckeye fans for Ohio State to return to a natural grass field, which made up the playing surface inside Ohio Stadium from 1922-1970 and again from 1990-2006 before a switch to FieldTurf in 2007.
While Ryan Day said Tuesday that he was unaware of the NFLPA’s campaign, Ohio State spokesperson Jerry Emig said administrators in the athletic department have “had some discussions” about turf safety in response to a question about the NFLPA’s campaign during Tuesday’s press conference.
That said, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said he does not anticipate any changes to Ohio Stadium’s playing surface after this season or in the near future when asked by Eleven Warriors if that was a possibility.
The current turf at Ohio Stadium was just installed this past summer, replacing the previous turf which had been in place from 2014-21. Before the season, the new playing surface – known as Safelite Field for sponsorship reasons – drew praise from Ryan Day and multiple Ohio State players. Day described the new turf, which is also utilized on Ohio State’s indoor field at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, as “state-of-the-art, really nice fields,” and TreVeyon Henderson (who is among the Ohio State players that have missed time with lower-extremity injuries this season) said the turf is “way better” than what the Buckeyes played on in 2021.
Emig said Ohio State tests its fields twice yearly to ensure they are safe to play on and will continue to do that moving forward.
