With a month remaining until the World Cup kicks off in NFL stadiums across the U.S., the NFL Players Association is reigniting its war on turf.
The NFLPA posted videos of executive director JC Tretter on its social media accounts on Monday criticizing NFL owners for providing grass in their stadiums for the World Cup.
“You look at FIFA, they’ll roll out the green carpet for soccer players,” Tretter said on a recent episode of Not Just Football with the Steelers’ Cam Heyward.
The union for NFL players has been vocal about its members’ preference for grass fields over the past few years. The union made similar claims about the World Cup last year as well as ahead of last summer’s FIFA Club World Cup.
FIFA requires grass for its competitions. The 16 venues across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada hosting the tournament this summer are starting to transform into their World Cup appearances—taking down branded signage and stadium names, and trotting in fresh grass.
NFL stadiums are split in half between natural and artificial surfaces. Of the 11 NFL stadiums serving as World Cup venues, four are grass and seven are turf. But all of them are getting new grass designed specifically for the tournament.
“NFL players have spent years advocating for safer, high-quality grass fields at their place of work, but when the World Cup is over, most of these stadiums will revert back to turf for the NFL season,” the NFLPA said in a statement attached to the videos. “Our players deserve workplaces that prioritize their preference, protect them against the weekly wear and tear of the game, and support their long-term health and performance.
Soccer players have also complained about the temporary grass when they play at NFL stadiums, including at the Copa América in 2024 and last year’s Club World Cup. Organizers insist that the 2026 World Cup uses better technology, developed at Michigan State University, than previous grass pitches used for international soccer tournaments in the U.S.
Late last year, the NFL introduced new field standards that will apply to all NFL stadiums including international game venues starting in 2028. “We definitely understand our fields better because of the tools we’ve developed with the Players Association,” NFL EVP Jeff Millertold Front Office Sports in February. “We can now measure some of those forces that allow us to create a standard to get into that Goldilocks zone between too hard and too soft. … If we can narrow what that band is when a player steps on that field, you’re going to have a similarity of feel.”
Tretter had been the president of the union from 2020 to 2024 and was installed as executive director in a controversial election earlier this year.
The former Packers and Browns lineman has been outspoken about the playing surface debate for years. He acknowledged that recent data shows that grass fields are not better for injury prevention than turf, but held that players still prefer the feeling of grass.
“That’s not a great talking point,” Tretter said. “What we want is good grass fields.”
Tretter said that 92% of the 1,700 players polled by the NFLPA prefer grass over turf. “There is something about the feeling of being on grass, your body feels different,” Tretter says.
Tretter also said it’s important that stadiums are being used “predominantly for football games,” because players don’t make money from the “concerts and monster truck rallies” that result in a “worse surface” for NFL games. “That’s what we’ve got to evaluate in the next deal,” Tretter said.
The NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement runs until March 2031.
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