Bob Kraft is quite the owner. He’s responsive, he’s decisive, he’s deliberate. He responded quickly to moaning and groaning about the state of his football stadium’s field. Everyone knew it was “grass” that in parts was painted green. Unfortunately, the color green does not make it sturdier, more stable footing. It’s all about the sod.
And for that, Kraft made a huge decision in almost no time at all: converting from natural grass to FieldTurf.
This may not seem like a monumental decision, but it is. Kraft is an old school football fan, a purest in many forms. But the oldest form of a football fan is winning, and he’ll do just about anything to keep that happening.
As I write this, the Patriots field looks like a barren wasteland. All the grass is gone, bulldozed out, and the FieldTurf will be installed before their next home game against the mighty Chicago Bears on November 26th.
If you’ve ever played on FieldTurf, it’s a dream. It’s a little bouncy, which surprisingly is good for preventing injuries. If your leg is trapped under a pile, rather than getting stuck in one spot, you have a little more flexibility with the Turf than grass or even it’s very nasty and evil predecessor AstroTurf.
The differences between AstroTurf and FieldTurf are astounding The skinny of it is AstroTurf is basically green carpet that is rolled over a thin (and I mean thin) layer of foam, which is laid onto concrete. It looks like the turf you play mini golf on and feels just like a brillo pad when you are tackled on it. It leaves everlasting scars on you like you wouldn’t believe. This turf is never in one giant sheet, there are seams. If you catch a seam with your cleat, you can get what is called Turf Toe. This is an excruciating injury, as basically it is a major toe stub where you almost fold your big toe in half. This is a result of bad turf. You can get it on grass fields as well, it’s just an injury guys would get but they never had a common name for it, hence Turf Toe.
In many instances, FieldTurf can come in one giant sheet. Not all the time, but it does, and the minor seams it can have are nothing like the AstroTurf. The blades of “grass” on it are about an inch and a half long, dark green, and the field is filled with tiny rubber pellets that cushion the entire field. Being tackled on it actually feels a hell of a lot better than on regular grass, and slower players are faster on it with a little extra spring to their step and faster players are even faster. It’s a product that can withstand the test of time, weather, and anything else you can throw at it. It’s been installed around the country in over 2200 parks, stadiums, and fields. It’s an amazing product.
It’s not called homefield advantage if you aren’t winning on it and can barely run on it. Kraft listened and responded. If even a quarter of any major sports teams owners responded the way Bob Kraft does, sports as a whole would be much better off.
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