NFL just posted a job opening for a Senior Director of Field Research and Stadium Projects.
Job Description
The Sr. Director of Fields, Field Research and Stadium Projects will lead and be on-site for all neutral site games to oversee all field-related planning and will liaise with member clubs to maintain high standards of excellence of field surface. This individual will lead all surface research, whether natural or synthetic, manage consultant experts as well as direct engagement with manufacturers, other sports leagues and the 32 clubs. In addition, this individual will collaborate on internal processes, project management, stadium and game day preparations, and issue tracking/reporting.
Responsibilities:
Field Research Workstreams and Committees
- Liaise with Health & Safety, as well as 3rd party consultants, on improved testing/tracking options and protocols
- Oversee NFL-NFLPA Joint Mandatory Practices for fields/playing surfaces and liaise with Management Council on updates/modifications
- Joint Surface Committee research and support
- Lead team responsible for overseeing and executing field maintenance plans during Halftime rehearsals at Super Bowl
International & Neutral Site Games
- Lead field surface project plans for practice and game fields for all Neutral Site Games (International Series, Pro Bowl, Super Bowl, etc.) to ensure consistency across all games.
- Procure and facilitate storage of all necessary equipment and tools for field preparation (e.g., paint machines, blowers, mowers, grow lights, field and bench area tarps, grow blankets, etc.)
- Maintain and manage field equipment warehouse inventory and shipping for all neutral site and international games
- Oversee League-hired grounds crew for all Neutral Site Games including scheduling, communications, onboarding paperwork, travel, housing, etc.
- Oversee budget for all field projects
- Identify, source and oversee any ancillary support required (e.g., fertilizer, sand, specialty equipment).
- Lead efforts with Sod Farms for all neutral site games
Stadium Operations & Game Day Support
- Primary responsibility for sharing turf/field research with clubs to aid them in field selection, replacement, preparation etc. This includes practice surfaces as well
- Part of a team that Liaises with 32 Club Field mangers to ensure day-to-day compliance with field policies & best practices
- Visit and review all new field installs, field issues/concerns, oversee compliance with NFL-NFLPA CBA/Joint Mandatory Practices
- Advise Clubs that have new stadium projects and/or renovation plans on field surfaces, best practices, field dimensions, etc. and conduct on-site walkthroughs during construction phases to ensure construction details comply with the renderings
- Review and edit relevant sections of the Game Ops manual.
- Attend periodic in-person meetings, including the Combine, Field Managers meeting, etc.
r/NFL won’t like this but there is no good answer here.
Grass is not a cure all - it reduces certain types of injuries but it increases the chance of other types of injuries. And the condition of the grass also matters.
Maybe I’m also biased as a Seahawks fan, who knows the graveyard for our players is Glendale, a grass stadium.
It rains all the time up here. A grass field would be a mud pit half the season.
Also let’s not get into the grass getting killed by all the other events these stadiums host.
Drainage my dude.
You don’t just plop down some sod and call it good.
Bro think about how much it rains in the UK (hint, the entire country averages more rain than Seattle). It’s a piss poor excuse.
Yeah, 160 pound track runners jogging after a ball is the exact same amount of wear and tear as 100 snaps of OL vs DL 600 pound collisions in the middle of the field. Exact same scenarios.
concrete it is then
St. Louis had concrete around the field for a long time when Rams were there.
Reggie Bush slipped on it, hurt his knee and sued.
We tried this with the Kingdome, arguably shorten the career of one of the greatest baseball players of all time, Ken Griffey Jr.
Practically everyone was playing on concrete for a while there in the 70s-90s
Philly and Green Bay are the only two teams to use a hybrid grass field. And in soccer almost everyone uses hybrid grass. hybrid grass
Yeah I think this is more of a case by case thing.
Texans play on the fancy turf and I’ve not seen complaints about it and there are no abnormally high lower leg injuries occurring in games there that I can tell.
Obviously, some places like MetLife getting constantly hounded by players is a sign that something is wrong there.
It’s not but it’s a fact that artificial turf is worse than grass
https://apnews.com/article/79212f5443cd2a0d30fe8c9d981b13c0