Former Washington QB Colt McCoy reveals the one good thing about FedEx Field
Former Washington quarterback Colt McCoy is gearing up to lead the Arizona Cardinals this season in place of injured star Kyler Murray. Looking back on his time in D.C. with Chris Long on the Green Light podcast, McCoy revealed what the one good thing about playing at FedEx Field was.
Long asked McCoy if he feels the team would have won more games in a “real NFL stadium,” but the Arizona QB wouldn’t pile on and even applauded the team for having grass instead of turf.
“I mean, is it as bad for the opposing team as it is for us as the home team?… I’m not going to knock it that bad because I’m a big fan of grass fields,” McCoy said. “I think everybody should have grass. As I’m getting older, playing on turf, like dude, I can’t, it’s crazy how much worse, how bad you feel for two-three days after the game.
“When you play on grass, I just feel like your joints, your knees, your ankles, like it doesn’t hurt. I can’t prove why it’s like that but, all I know is, based on how I feel playing on turf versus playing on grass, it’s not even close.”
McCoy is far from the first player to advocate for grass fields across the board.
Head of NFLPA calls out Jerry Jones, NFL ownership
NFLPA president JC Tretter had a scathing review of the NFL ownership following the release of the 2022 injury data. Tretter exposed the increased rate of injuries to players playing on turf versus grass in 10 of the past 11 years and called out owners who deny the increased risks to player safety.
At one point in his letter, the leader of the player’s association specifically named Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones as one of the league heads going against the data.
“I would like to know what Jerry Jones thinks of this new information,” Tretter wrote, “given that he too, in November of 2022 said, ‘And it’s not because we have the surface that we have. Our league stats don’t see issues with the type of surface that we have as opposed to natural grass. We don’t see issues. No facts bear that out.‘”
“The credibility the league has with the players on health and safety issues is virtually nonexistent,” Tretter continued. “Instead of following the long-term data (which is clear on this issue), listening to players and making the game safer, the NFL used an outlier year to engage in a PR campaign to convince everyone that the problem doesn’t actually exist. For example, the Tennessee Titans recently announced that they will be changing from a grass field to turf, citing that they believe the change will make the field safer.”
Tretter went on to call out the “absolutely appalling” reality that NFL owners will swap out turf fields for grass when European soccer clubs come to town, but not at the request of their own players.