During recent NFL Games, a recipient of the NFL Head Health Challenge grant received media attention promoting the idea of a shock pad under artificial turf. With the increase in concussions being seen on head to surface impacts, it’s now a national conversation at the highest levels to improve the safety of the athletic field itself at all levels of play.
The impacts of this acknowledgement by the NFL should send ripples through the industry at every level, from youth-to college-to pro, that the turf athletes play upon is now an integral part of the safety discussion. The public knows the dangers of low-standard artificial turf field installations and the NFL recognizes that the technology exists to make playing surfaces safer.
The only misstep in the NFL’s “Future of Football” promotion is the notion that this “new” technology will be available soon. It has been available for over a decade from Brock and has been installed for many NFL teams in their practice fields. Volumes of research have been done comparing every artificial turf shock pad that has come to market. Centers for research at universities have been created with the sole purpose of dissecting every component of artificial turf systems and identifying how to attain each desirable performance attribute, with the goal of mimicking the qualities of a great natural grass field.
We are delighted that the NFL has acknowledged the message that Brock has been trumpeting for over 10 years, but to say it’s the future would be a disservice to all the advances the turf industry has recently made.
Simply put, the future is now.
Read full Brock USA Press Release
