The Tennessee Titans made a controversial announcement on Tuesday afternoon regarding their playing surface.
Tennessee is moving from grass to turf, despite players making their preference for grass very clear. “The project – replacing the grass with monofilament, Matrix Helix Turf with organic infill – will provide players with a consistent playing experience year-round,” the Titans said.
Fans weren’t thrilled with the announcement.
“While I understand this, I don’t have to like it,” said one Titans reporter.
“Let’s switch the field of the most injured team in the NFL to turf! Makes perfect sense!” another fan said.
While fans aren’t thrilled, Titans head coach Mike Vrabel made it clear the team did its homework before making the decision.
“There is nothing more important than the health and safety of our players,” Vrabel said. “We’ve had a lot of issues (with the grass at Nissan Stadium) after a certain part of the season. It’s hard to grow grass. It gets slick. We put new turf down, we try and put new sod down and it’s slick, you see guys slipping.”
He said the team has seen “positive” response when testing the new playing surface.
“We added this product inside the bubble and … the response has been very positive, very favorable to that surface to the new technology that continues to come out. Just witnessing our practices inside and how they feel and how they respond on that product. … We’re excited to be able to add this product to our stadium.”
Did the Titans make the right decision?