Cooper Kupp plays his home games on fake grass. He won the Super Bowl MVP award while playing on fake grass. He feels not sentimentality for that playing surface, especially when it comes to playing on that surface twice in five days.
“As you know, I hate it,” Kupp told reporters on Tuesday when asked about the Sunday-Thursday two-pack at SoFi Stadium against the Saints. “I’m not a fan of turf in general and it’s obviously tough going back-to-back on a short week. But it is what it is. I know people are certainly aware of it. If there’s going to be change that’s going to come, it’s not because people don’t know, you know? So it is what it’s. Like I said, it’s the same thing about playing Thursday night. Everyone’s got to do it. Everyone’s got to get it done on turf and just part of this game and you got to deal with it.”
It’s a very pragmatic approach from Kupp. And it makes him just the latest current player to chime in on the anti-turf side of the debate.
We continue to wait for even one player to say that he’s on Team Turf.
The Commissioner has tried to characterize the question of grass vs. turf as an actual debate. However, there can’t be a debate if no one shows up at the other podium.
Some have tried. None are current players. Not a single current player has said, “I prefer playing on turf because I can run faster, even if it takes me longer to get out of bed the next day.” Not any. Not one.
That said, it’s only going to change if the players are willing once the next Collective Bargaining Agreement expires to insist on all-grass venues — and if they’re willing to back it up by not playing on any surface until their football daddies cry, “Uncle.”
A strike hasn’t happened since 1987. And that one failed because the players couldn’t hold together for more than a few weeks once it started.
That’s the question to be answered by whoever is playing in the NFL in the early years of the next decade. Will you trade playing football for the ability to never have to play football on turf? If so, how much football are you willing to not play to get there?
It would be interesting to see how many current players would strike, if given the chance. Only those still playing when the current CBA expires will get that chance.
There’s a good chance that, as much as they hate playing football on turf, they’ll hate not playing football more. Especially once the owners snap their fingers and fill the rosters with replacement players.