White Paper 3rd Draft- Doublea

Hypothesis

Eliminating artificial turf fields with real grass fields would decrease the total amount of knee injuries in an NFL season

Sources

Source 1: NFL panel finds some knee, ankle injuries more common on turf. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d816e77f1/article/nfl-panel-finds-some-knee-ankle-injuries-more-common-on-turf

This article talks about the increase specifically in ACL injuries on Fieldturf surfaces. The article started off by saying that in an annual study conducted by the NFL that knee injuries on Fieldturf surfaces increased the rate of knee injuries by 88 percent. The study was conducted in the 2003-2008 seasons. The article states that there was only 9 stadiums that have the Fielfturf surfaces. With that being said I could use the research of this article to describe the effect that the Fieldturf playing surface has on knee injuries. With just 9 stadiums sporting the Fieldturf it is a mind boggling stat that the result of knee injuries is increased by 88 percent. Imagine if every field sported the Fieldturf surfaces. The chances of a major knee injury every game would be very high.

Source 2: Turf Battle in the NFL: Natural vs. Artificial. (2017, March 11). Retrieved from https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/lawn-care-2/turf-at-nfl-stadiums/

The article starts off by talking about the struggle of running a fantasy team with all the injuries that occur now a days on turf fields. It starts off by naming five key players that got hurt in the preseason due to turf fields. I can relate this to my own paper because I too play fantasy football and can relate to the injury struggle due to turf fields. Tons of people every year witness the amount of injuries players encounter playing the dangerous game. The article brings up that there is now 17 stadiums equipped with artificial turf now. Now this number is different than the number of the first article and that is because this is a more recent article but this can go to show that more teams are moving indoors so they have to have turf. With the increase in turf fields in the league I should show the increase in injuries on these fields in my essay.

Source 3: Todd Neale Todd Neale. (2010, March 15). AAOS: Artificial Turf Injuries Still More Likely in NFL. Retrieved from https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/aaos/19020

The article once again brings up the number that the articles brought up. I can continue to use the number of 88% more likely to get a knee injury on turf fields a lot. The stat is mind boggling and seriously should be looked at by NFL officials. The number of lower leg injuries in the seasons on fieldturf fields was 1.79:1.4 per team game. These turf fields were introduced in 2000 so I could try and find a graph of injuries resulting in every year and find a correlation with knee injuries and turf fields.

Source 4: BANSCH, J. (1993, Oct 17). Knee injuries call for abolishment of artificial turf fields. Indianapolis Star Retrieved from http://ezproxy.rowan.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/240088678?accountid=13605

This article describes the moments in a game between the Eagles and the Colts where 3 separate season ending knee injuries occurred all on turf. The article quotes this trainer Otho Davis, a physical trainer for the Philadelphia Eagles. It quotes him saying that he normally does not take sides between turf and grass fields but this season has been something else to him. Also quotes the Colts trainer saying that players want to cut on a dime but their bodies cannot handle the force of the cuts on the turf.

Source 5: NRG Stadium’s Playing Surface An ‘Abomination’. (2014, September 09). Retrieved from http://houston.cbslocal.com/2014/09/09/nrg-stadiums-playing-surface-an-abomination/

This article talks about the grass turf on Reliant Field home of the Houston Texans. The article talks about the square panels that the field uses for play. These panels are set up and when you get a cleat stuck in the side of a panel it can bend your knee the wrong way. This is what happened in Jadeveon Clowney’s first game where he planted in one of the seams and bent his knee the wrong way. According to his teammate Swearinger he also believes this is a problem because there has been a big injury bug around the Texans and knee injuries for years. I can use this to show that this could be the case for other fields as well and this is not safe to play on.

Source 6: Is an ACL tear more common on artificial turf or grass? (2018, March 03). Retrieved from http://www.drdavidgeier.com/ask-dr-geier-acl-tears-on-natural-grass-or-fieldturf/

This article brings to light the question asked by a blog member on a doctors blog site. Dr. David Geieir was brought a question because a kid had 3 injuries on his football team all on turf fields away games. Their home field was grass and all three injuries occurred on turf at away games. When answering the question Dr. said that the best results were from this study made from NFL teams from 2000-2009 where the results showed that there was not an increase in MCL injuries on turf but there was a 22% increase in knee sprains altogether and a 67% higher chance of getting an ACL sprain on turf than grass.

Source 7: Hershman, E. B., Anderson, R., Bergfeld, J. A., Bradley, J. P., Coughlin, M. J., Johnson, R. J., . . . Tucker, A. (2012, 09). An Analysis of Specific Lower Extremity Injury Rates on Grass and FieldTurf Playing Surfaces in National Football League Games. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 40(10), 2200-2205. doi:10.1177/0363546512458888 

This article is actually the results that Dr. G used in his answer to his blogger. The results are the same as stated above but it tells us what stats they used to find this data. The article says that they literally used every game from 2000-2009 seasons and made a graph and analysed the data to find the results. The results were from 2680 games which is 5360 team games played so it is without a doubt a lot of data.

Source 8: Iacovelli, J. N., Yang, J., Thomas, G., Wu, H., Schiltz, T., & Foster, D. T. (2013, August 01). The effect of field condition and shoe type on lower extremity injuries in American Football. Retrieved from http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/47/12/789.citation-tools

This article talked about a 130 game span where they analyzed the lower extremity injuries. In this time the data was found that there was an increase in lower extremity injuries on turf but not during practice. If this is the case just practice on turf and play on grass or just take you chances and practice on grass and play on grass. I would use this in my arguments by saying and proving that in in game play there is an increase in lower extremity injuries.

Source 9: 6 – Risk of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury as a Function of Type of Playing Surface. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780323389624000060

This article states how there is indeed an increase in the number of lower extremity injuries on the football field due to the playing surface. The article states a lot of causes though like surface hardness, rotational stiffness, and release torque. These physical characteristics may interact with other environmental factors such as cleat design, surface moisture levels, and ambient temperature. Altogether, these causes are what causes these  player to twist/turn their knees on the turf. It describes how the strongest evidence in field turf play injuries comes from football because of the size of players and level of play. This article is from 2018 so I plan on using this article to bring up the argument in my rebuttal argument that people may have problems with the fact that my evidence is from 2009.

Source 10:

A Review of Synthetic Playing Surfaces, the Shoe-Surface Interface, and Lower Extremity Injuries in Athletes. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10

This article talks about how the versatility and durability of artificial playing fields but, are they really that safe. It states that research over time has shown an increase in injury on artificial playing surfaces and that biomechanical data suggests that both the torque and strain experienced by lower extremity joints generated by artificial surfaces may be more than those generated by natural grass fields. With that being said this article is more of a recent article too and I could also use this against the arguments people will have arisen in my rebuttal argument.