NFL Field Director Nick Pappas Talks Push for Safer Playing Surfaces

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

Tim Stenovec (0:07)

When it comes to the surface that NFL teams play on, it seems to be an even split, I think 16 of natural grass stadiums and 14 artificial turf stadiums. So the split seems to reflect the debate that's out there over playing services, differing views on safety, cost, maintenance, all that good stuff.

Carol Massar (0:24)

Someone who knows a ton about grass versus our official turf with us, a key member of our sports coverage team, Randall Williams, Bloomberg News Senior Reporter, the co-host of the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.

SPEAKER_4 (0:33)

He looks like a field. I do, Ted. I do today.

Carol Massar (0:37)

He's wearing all green.

SPEAKER_4 (0:39)

I love your shirt. I love it.

Carol Massar (0:41)

He joins us here in the Bloomberg Business Week Studio. He's also brought to us Nick Pappas, Director of Field Services for the NFL. He joins us from Georgia.

Nick, first off, Randall knows all this already and he came by our desk to school us a little bit earlier. But for those who may not watch games all season long, just take us to like, then certainly may take it for granted. Tell us what's involved in just doing your job.

Nick Pappas (1:05)

Hey, thanks guys.

SPEAKER_4 (1:07)

Yeah.

Nick Pappas (1:07)

So pretty much everything that touches an NFL playing field in some way runs through me and my team. So game day compliance for our domestic stadiums, preparation for Super Bowl and international games, and then leading the work on surface improvement with our Joint Surface Committee and all the research that goes into that. So it sits in a few different buckets. But if it touches an NFL field somewhere, I've probably had a fingerprint on it.

SPEAKER_4 (1:32)

Nick, you recently got back from Australia. You'll be traveling all over the world this NFL season, in large part because of the NFL's nine international games. I wonder what challenges those stadiums in particular pose. Those aren't NFL venues. Those are often European soccer clubs and also rugby as well.

Tell me a little bit about those challenges.

Nick Pappas (1:52)

Yeah, every single location poses its own unique challenges, honestly. Every year over the last few years, we've added new markets which add new challenges. A lot of the time, traditionally playing on soccer pitches which are shorter but wider, so having to do extension projects and construction. Obviously, having to bring in our yellow football uprights, having to make sure we've got the appropriate footers. Some of the things that obviously go with American football, discussions about paint are a big thing. We're usually playing inside of someone else's season. If you just saw at the MCG, they had some time after our game, they actually replaced their playing surface. I believe they're actually about to kick off if they haven't already the AFL final. So a lot of different nuanced challenges in every market, in each of these continents and then each of the site-specific conditions.

SPEAKER_4 (2:41)

So one of the things you just mentioned, soccer and of course the World Cup was here. We saw a lot of NFL teams replaced their turf with grass. And one of the things that players said after they came up with this hashtag called Worth the Cost Trying to Replace the Turf with the Grass. But I've spoken to you, I've spoken to Jeff Miller, I've spoken to a lot of people at the NFL who say, there's no direct correlation with injuries on turf versus grass. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Nick Pappas (3:06)

Yeah, that's correct. So obviously, we work closely with the NFLPA and we have a third party that brings us our data and presents it to us annually. And obviously, we can look at that throughout the season to try and see trends. When we look at injury rate by surface type, breaking out natural grass versus artificial surfaces, it ends up being the same and it's been the same over a number of seasons now. So when we talk about injury rate, you're really at the same risk for a lower extremity non-direct contact injury. So that's an injury that may occur lower part of the body without having a direct-

SPEAKER_4 (3:39)

an Achilles, something like that.

Nick Pappas (3:41)

Correct. So we've tracked those and looked at that extensively to try and understand, is one contributing to injury more than the other? And the way it's been presented to us, and the data that gets supplied to this party through our athletic trainers and our clubs, as they track injuries and track our athletes on surfaces, it ends up being a split, no statistical difference in either of those right now.