The Turf-Caused Injury Travis Kelce Suffered Should Scare Owners Into Getting Grass

Getty Image / Kevin Sabitus

NFL owners are some incredibly rich individuals who refuse to spend money in most stadiums to play on what the NFLPA thinks are safer natural grass fields, and instead put in cheaper turf fields. But, a near-miss on a catastrophic injury to the face of the NFL, Travis Kelce, should scare the owners into finally doing the right thing and putting in natural grass fields.

The injury happened late in the second quarter of the Vikings-Chiefs matchup at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Take a look. You can see his foot clearly get stuck in the turf.

Travis Kelce immediately went to the locker room for X-rays to his foot, but returned to the sideline after halftime.

This comes after Aaron Rodgers was injured on the first drive of the year for the New York Jets while playing on turf. While the video evidence

That’s a huge sigh of relief not just for the Kansas City Chiefs and Travis Kelce, but for the NFL as a whole. Right now, Kelce is the face of the NFL. He already was a superstar, but his very public relationship with arguably the most famous woman in the world, Taylor Swift, has sent NFL ratings exploding during weeks 3 and 4 when Swift attended her beau’s games. And, while she isn’t in the stands for today’s game, I’m sure there are plenty of people watching.

I don’t want to exaggerate here, but as someone who covers Taylor Swift a pretty good amount, if this was a truly serious injury, as soon as Swift fans found out about the studies out that the NFLPA alleges show that turf fields cause more injuries than natural grass. And, imagine when they found out that these same owners willingly bring in grass fields when European soccer teams come over to play friendlies, but won’t do it for their NFL players.

You may laugh, I am not. It would not have been a good time for the NFL. It’s one thing for sports outlets to put pressure on the league about this stuff. This would have gone full mainstream in the news. They would’ve talked about it on Good Morning America this week. People Magazine would’ve put players victimized by turf on the cover. Okay, maybe not that, but it would’ve been the kind of PR crisis that could have forced the league to do the right thing and invest in the health and safety of their players.

Kelce scored a touchdown after returning to the game, and he seems to be okay. But, hopefully NFL owners come to their senses.