NFL’s Potential Shift from Turf to Grass: A World Cup Lesson

You ready? I'm gonna agree with George Kittle here. Do you think the NFL is learning anything from what they're watching with the World Cup here? I mean, I look at some of these stadiums, Jacob. I don't recognize Levi's Stadium. I didn't recognize MetLife when they put that grass down. Do you think the NFL, now Phil Simms was on with us yesterday. He thinks I'm nuts to think that the NFL would ever go down that lane because it's just too much money when it comes to the players. But, I mean, look at what they did with the World Cup. They ripped these carpets up. Now they're gonna rip the grass up and put back the inferior carpets down for the players. What's your takeaway on that? Yeah, Dan, I think it's, you know, if you can put grass out for the World Cup, you can certainly do it for NFL games as well. And I know to your point, it's all about the money and the league will say, you know, hey, there's not a significant difference in players getting injured on turf versus grass. But based on what I've seen just on social media reactions, players talking about it, it seems like a large portion of them would just prefer to play on the grass over the turf. So if your number one goal as the NFL and the teams is to protect your players, make sure that they stay healthy and so that you can put the best product out on the field and have the best chance of winning, then I think it's a no-brainer to go with grass. Sure, it's gonna cost some extra money. Sure, it's not gonna necessarily be easy to maintain. But if it makes the players happier and it keeps them healthier, I think that's ultimately what the future should look like. But I think they're gonna continue to hold on to this and say, hey, the turf stuff is fine, the turf stuff is fine until it gets to a point where maybe in eventual CBA negotiations, players are like, we gotta play on grass. So I don't know that it's gonna just change outright. But I think this World Cup has started a really nice debate about it. It's kind of just shown a spotlight on this and said, hey, players want grass. Why can't they have it if we can do it for the World Cup? So I think it's very interesting to see this kind of unfold and develop in front of us. And I think over the next 10 years, it'll continue to be a big talking point until the NFL eventually maybe does make a change. I'm gonna stay in the World Cup lane here a little bit. You think the NFL has learned anything on how to promote the league overseas? Because I gotta tell you, the World Cup here in America has gone over well. Look at the television ratings. I mean, maybe Team USA doesn't know how to play in the game. They sure know how to put a party on. And it's been a hell of a party. How does the NFL get more of an influence overseas? I know we're playing more games. Is it gonna be more cities, in your opinion, that we're gonna start seeing more NFL games start to spread out a little bit more, maybe across the world? Because there's obviously an emphasis by the NFL to wanna get their flag overseas. Yeah, I think they're gonna continue to try to expand where games are being played internationally and try to have them go back to places where we've seen success. I mean, we've seen it in London, we've seen it in Germany. I think we're having an Ireland game. We're having an Australia game that I'm very interested to see how that's gonna pan out because that travel in week one for the Rams and 49ers is going to be, it's gonna really test the team that loses, has to come back and try to win their next game with that time change. So I think the time changes are a real part of when you look at like, hey, can we export this product overseas and have this happen? But I think you look at some of these European places. I know, I'm from New England, so I've saw like the Scottish takeover of Boston up here. And it feels like a no brainer given how successful that was to, hey, let's try to put a Patriots game in Scotland at some point, get some of our people over there, the Scots will show up and just have a party there. So I think it's just kind of embracing the fan tradition that these countries have. Like you see all the chance they do at soccer games, like bring those over to some international NFL games, just try to continue to stoke the audience, make them have a good time. And I think they'll continue to grow overseas if they can do that. And I think they're on the right path for it. I think there's gonna be a lot of international games. I think every team is eventually gonna play one a season, but we're just gonna kind of see how that goes as time goes on. I don't think we'll ever see a Super Bowl overseas, but do you think you could see an NFC championship game overseas? I think that's an interesting question because I think the dynamic of having home field advantage for those championship games, I would think would be critical. I don't disagree with you. I think putting a Super Bowl overseas would be kind of a hard sell because they want the Super Bowl in prime time, obviously here in America. So if you put it in England and try to put that at six o'clock here on the East Coast, that's gonna not line up time-wise. So I think you could see them export some big games over there, but anything that involves home field advantage, I think is gonna be tough sell to the fan bases.