Friday night’s World Cup match between the United States and Paraguay looked great. Most of the images from the 4-1 U.S. win didn’t look anything like the stadium in which it was played.
But it was indeed SoFi Stadium. With rich, lush, naturally green grass.
“Wonder if we could get that all season,” 49ers tight end George Kittle said on Twitter.
Although the 49ers’ annual visit to their home away from home to play the Rams won’t happen this year (they’ll square off in Australia), the 49ers will be at SoFi Stadium to play the Chargers in Week 15, for a Thursday night game.
Friday night’s soccer match showed what SoFi could be, what it would be, if Rams owner Stan Kroenke were to embrace grass.
But he won’t. It costs too much money to maintain a high-quality grass field. It complicates the effort to have all sorts of other events at the venue.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made that point earlier this year, regarding his no-questions-asked willingness to install grass at AT&T Stadium for the World Cup.
“We have more flexibility with the way we handle our surface at the stadium,” Jones said at the annual meetings in Phoenix, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN. “We have no belief that it’s any safer to play on a grass [field] or a turf. We are ambiguous as to the safety of it. The turf, actually like many things, improves the economics of being able to play this game and our players are the biggest benefactor of all. They get the best benefit of when we do good things financially, the players are benefiting. So I’m working for you, baby, OK, if you’re a player.
“And so the combination of that, I’m very comfortable putting some grass down for soccer under regulations and proud to be able to do it but quickly get that turf back out there to go about the other business of the stadium and the team.”
The safety narrative is a weak one. The NFL has muddied the issue by focusing on the statistical claim that the injury rate is the same on grass as it is on turf. This ignores player experience beyond the question of actual injuries. The human body takes less wear and tear when the forces it creates are absorbed by a grass field than when the forces ricochet back into the feet and up through the legs.
Besides, how does Jerry Jones hosting a bunch of other events in a football stadium benefit the football players on the Cowboys? At best, it gives him more money to pay players. In a salary-capped environment, however, who cares? The TV money and the ticket revenue from the football games gives owners more than enough money to finance the roster.
The simple reality is that the overwhelming majority of players — 92 percent — prefer grass.
“I’m going into year 10, and I can say wholeheartedly that grass feels way better than turf,” Giants offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor recently said, via Rohan Nadkarni of NBC News. “With MetLife getting grass, obviously it’s cool for FIFA and the World Cup. It’s one of the biggest stages in the world but, at the same time, the NFL as a whole is one of the most profitable businesses in the world, and so you would think that us as players would have a say in the fields that we get to play on.”
The players do have a say. In an environment of collective bargaining, however, they need to be willing to give something up to get something else. When the original artificial turf — a thin sheet of green all-weather carpet rolled over concrete — began to proliferate, the NFL Players Association allowed it. The owners secured the discretion to choose the playing surface without any real pushback.
Now that the pushback is happening, the only path for making high-quality grass universal comes from bargaining for it. And, if need be, going on strike to get it.
It all comes back to the fundamental imbalance between management and labor in pro football. The owners will shut the sport down to get what they want. The players won’t.
If the choice is football on artificial turf or no football at all, the players will choose football on artificial turf. And the owners will ignore the P.R. complications flowing from the hypocrisy of writing a blank check for FIFA, because at the end of the day it’s all just words. Until the words are backed up by actions, nothing will change.
Hell, Jones probably likes the fact that the grass vs. turf debate exists. His view is that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. And so, on top of the fact that Jones and other owners make more money from staging their teams’ games on turf, the organic debate over an inorganic playing surface becomes another twist in the ultimate reality show.
And it’s a twist with no stakes. Unless and until the NFLPA is willing to do something other than create public pressure at which the owners won’t even blink, the back-and-forth over turf vs. grass will be nothing but noise.
So that’s the real question. Will the players simply talk about their preference for grass or, when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires in 2031, will they do something about it?
Given that most of the men who’ll be playing pro football in 2031 are currently in college or high school, it’s way too early to know the choice they’ll make. History, however, tells us that the decision between playing on artificial turf and not playing at all will be a no-brainer.
In the interim, is it possible that the players could emerge from talks over an expanded season with universal grass fields? Yes. To get there, however, they may have to be willing to go not from 17 regular-season games to 18 but from 17 to 20.
Giants Clips
General Manager Joe Schoen said this week that the Giants expect Malik Nabers to play in the season opener on Sept. 13. Coach John Harbaugh sounded less definitive, saying he is “hopeful” the wide receiver will be back “soon.”
Nabers didn’t participate in the Giants’ mandatory minicamp as he continues his rehab from a torn ACL that required a second surgery to remove scar tissue.
“He said his plan is to be here most of the time, almost all the time he’ll be here, I believe,” coach John Harbaugh said Wednesday, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN. “I don’t think he will be here all the time. He’s going to be here a lot, working really hard. He’s making really good progress right now. I’m very hopeful that he’ll be back soon.
“Also, understand when you come back from a knee, he’ll be back, and he’ll still be building his way back to his ultimate full-strength self. But he’s doing great. He’s doing a great job. He’s made some real good progress in the last few weeks.”
Nabers tore the ACL in his right knee in Week 4 against the Chargers and underwent surgery Oct. 28. The second surgery this offseason was a cleanup surgery after Nabers was experiencing stiffness.
Harbaugh has said that Nabers’ knee injury was “not simple.”
It seems likely that Nabers will start camp on active/physically unable to perform as his rehab continues.
“It’s a slog; it’s a grind. He’s still in the middle of it,” Harbaugh said Wednesday. “He’s probably not in the middle of it now. He’s probably maybe 70 percent through. I don’t know, something like that, 80 percent through.
“He’s still grinding. It’s going to be a grind when he starts playing again, too, to get back right.”
Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers had surgery in October to repair his torn ACL, then had a second surgery this offseason to remove scar tissue. But the Giants still believe Nabers will be good to go for the season opener.
Giants General Manager Joe Schoen said this week that Nabers should be on the field on September 13, when the Giants host the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football.
“I still think he’ll be fine Week 1,” Schoen told Yahoo Sports on Monday. “So we’ll see. He’s trending in the right direction. Again, these things take time, so it’s not instant. Every patient is different.”
Nabers isn’t practicing yet, but new Giants offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said he’s been impressed with Nabers’ mental approach to the offseason, learning Nagy’s system quickly.
“I see why he’s as good as he is,” Nagy said.
Schoen noted that the Giants brought in some insurance this offseason in the form of wide receivers Darnell Mooney, Odell Beckham Jr., Calvin Austin III, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Braxton Berrios. But the Giants are optimistic that the No. 1 receiver in Week 1 will be Nabers.
Cam Skattebo moved well in individual drills on Monday as he continues working his way back from a gruesome ankle injury. He took another step on Tuesday.
On the first 11-on-11 of the offseason practice, Skattebo took a handoff. It marked the first time he has participated in team drills since a dislocated right ankle, a fractured fibula and a ruptured deltoid ligament in an Oct. 26 game against the Giants.
Skattebo expects to be full go for the start of training camp in late July.
He rushed for 410 yards and five touchdowns on 101 carries in the eight games he played last season before his injury. He also had 24 catches for 207 yards and two touchdowns.
Good football coaches are also good politicians. They know, as evidenced by the photo attached to this post, the importance of supporting other local teams during a postseason run. They also know what to say, and what not to say, when it comes to sensitive subjects.
On Monday, a question was posed to Giants coach John Harbaugh about the recent placement of grass at MetLife Stadium for the World Cup — to be removed and replaced with artificial turf that the players don’t like.
“Oh, you’re going to try to draw me in to the turf versus grass,” Harbaugh said. “And Roger [Goodell] is gonna call me up and he’s gonna get mad at me because I’m probably not gonna say what he wants me to say, so. That’s all I’m gonna say. That’s all I’m gonna say. It’s a good surface out there. It’s a good artificial surface, I’ll say that. How’s that?”
Harbaugh didn’t need to say what he wanted to say. Beyond the fact that what he would have said is obvious, Harbaugh has previously spoken about his preference for football on grass.
In 2015, when the Ravens switched from turf to grass, Harbaugh made his feelings about the move clear.
“It kind of epitomizes what Baltimore is all about, the history of football in Baltimore,” Harbaugh said. “To me, a Baltimore football team should be playing on a grass field in Baltimore.”
The sentiment is true, regardless of the city. After all, it was the Baltimore Colts against Harbaugh’s New York Giants on grass in the 1958 NFL Championship, known as the Greatest Game Ever Played.
Beyond tradition, the players strongly prefer it. As Devin McCourty said on PFT Live, coaches do, too. It’s the owners who want to have a cheaper surface that makes it easier to host events other than football games when the football team isn’t using the stadium for football.
The fact that Harbaugh anticipated a phone call from the Commissioner perfectly captures the current state of the debate. It has become not a question of what’s right for the players. It’s a collective bargaining issue. The NFL will hold the rope on turf, if only to get the best possible concession from the NFL Players Association if/when all stadiums embrace grass.
And the powers-that-be won’t want anyone from management saying anything that will weaken the ability to maximize the return the owners receive if/when they finally show proper respect for the players — and when they decide to properly protect their investment in them.
The Giants’ move to hire John Harbaugh as their head coach in January sparked hopes that the team will be able to return to being contender and that feeling has not flagged as the team nears the end of its offseason program.
This week’s mandatory minicamp will mark that end and the Giants will be weeks away from playing their first game under Harbaugh once they get back together for training camp. Good vibes about what’s to come will likely remain in place once the Giants get back together, but edge rusher Brian Burns offered a reminder about the fleeting nature of such feelings.
“Everybody is excited right now,” Burns said, via a transcript from the team. “Every other team is excited. Everybody is 0-0. They’re seeing the pieces they have, flying through OTAs. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel this is a little different, I was a little excited, and I expect highly of this team. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that. But at the end of the day, like I say, you’ve gotta prove it. It’s [not] just about being happy and optimistic. You’ve gotta get on the field and you’ve got to prove it against another team and impose your will on them.”
One need only look at recent Giants history to back up Burns’s statement. Harbaugh is the fifth permanent head coach since Tom Coughlin was dispatched and each of the others created reason to think things had turned a corner, but two winning seasons in 10 years makes it clear that reality has topped fantasy time and again for the Giants.
Reports from Monday’s Giants minicamp practice concerning edge rusher Abdul Carter may have provided a few scares, but there don’t appear to be any long-term fears for the 2025 first-round pick.
Carter limped off the field during practice after having his left foot and ankle looked at by trainers. He went to the locker room for further evaluation, but the word from the team is that Carter will be just fine.
Head coach John Harbaugh told reporters at a post-practice press conference that it looks like Carter twisted his ankle during the practice. Harbaugh added that the injury “doesn’t look serious.”
Carter had 43 tackles, four sacks, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries during his rookie season with the Giants.
The Giants got an injury scare from edge rusher Abdul Carter at their first minicamp practice on Monday, but there was a more positive update on the medical front for another of their 2024 draft picks.
Videos from media members at the practice show running back Cam Skattebo participating in drills. Skattebo can be seen moving well while taking handoffs and catching passes down the field in the shared clips.
It’s the first time that Skattebo has done that kind of work during an offseason practice open to the media. He said a couple of weeks ago that he is “a little ways out” from being 100 percent after last season’s ankle injury, but expected to be there when the team gets to training camp.
In eight games before his injury, Skattebo had 101 carries for 410 yards and five touchdowns along with 24 catches for 207 yards and two scores.
Sean McDermott has said that he’s planning on spending his 2026 speaking with people about leadership in order to grow as a coach.
While many of those visits have been with folks he didn’t know, one on Monday was a little different.
According to multiple reporters on the scene, McDermott was in New Jersey on Monday, attending Giants minicamp.
McDermott walked on the field with New York General Manager Joe Schoen, who previously worked with McDermott with the Bills.
McDermott also previously worked with now-Giants head coach John Harbaugh, as they were both assistants with the Eagles under head coach Andy Reid.
As head coach of the Bills, McDermott accumulated a 98-50 regular-season record and an 8-8 postseason record in his nine seasons.
He is likely to be one of the hottest head coaching candidates in the cycle once the calendar flips to January.
Giants edge rusher Abdul Carter suffered an injury that forced him off the field at today’s mandatory minicamp practice.
Carter had his left shoe and sock off and was examined by trainers, limped off the outdoor practice field and into the Giants’ indoor facility. according to Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News.
Carter is heading into his second season with the Giants, who drafted him with the third overall pick last year. He had a solid rookie season, starting slowly but coming on strong down the stretch, and finishing fifth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting.
Jordan Raanan of ESPN reports that the Giants’ initial belief is that Carter is OK.
