Indianapolis Colts Make Crucial Upgrades For Player Safety

Indianapolis Colts Make Crucial Upgrades For Player Safety

well after hosting an Olympic swimming competition in Lucas Stadium the Colts are making a well- needed change to Lucas Stadium all that and more on this video what’s going on it’s Elijah from Sports Talk Indy where we cover all things Colts every single day and today we are talking about Turf this has been a heavy topic of conversation and debate amongst the NFL owners and players union including our own Senator Ryan Kelly being the head of the charge moving from Turf to uh real grass in every NFL stadium now it is kind of a double standard when there is a um MLS or soccer match or Premier League match it seems to be a priority of all Stadium owners to suddenly be able to find a way to get grass in and the reason for this is that there is a belief that artificial turf uh has caused significantly more non-con injuries uh than grass or even than what we will talk about in a minute which is called Matrix Turf um it does not seem to um the stats don’t necessarily back this up but there is a significant uh point in that when people play at when players play at MetLife Stadium it does seem that ACL injuries go up Achilles injuries go up um versus a stadium like Lambo or like Arizona where injuries aren’t as common um so the Colts are making a well-needed adjustment they hosted the Olympic swimming competition having a pool an Olympic siiz pool in the stadium uh for the past several weeks that is now done and the Colts are now moving forward with scheduled upgrades to their Turf now they are not going to real grass uh though a lot of players and and fans would like to see that the Colts are going to be going towards what Sofi stadium has kind of pioneered which is this Matrix turf or Helix Turf uh and I’m going to pull up this article here that we pulled up from Sofi Stadium or from the Rams when they added this so uh you’ll see right here this is what the Colts are going to be putting in their after playing laying grass at Los Angeles Mor Stadium over the last four years Rams players cleats will now be digging into hellis construction synthetic Matrix Turf this season and Beyond laid down on Sofi earlier this month The Matrix Turf with Helix will provide longevity playability and performance that is unparalleled in the industry as we going through the process it took a couple years of ownership in the stadium to figure out what they wanted in there uh vice president I think uh It’s really because of player safety and performance that why we went this direction now it does seem um that this specific kind of turf is as much of a compromise as can be expected even though it is estimated that it would only cost a total of $52 million to replace all of the turf in all of the NFL the remaining NFL stadiums with um a real grass but it does seem that this for longevity and playability does seem to be going and it doesn’t the numbers don’t lie here either um the injuries related to artificial turf were significantly higher in theory but in the NFL this is a report from Dan Graziano over at Bleacher Report from Adam Wells here it says despite ongoing calls from players for NFL teams to use grass instead of artificial turf in stadiums a study from the league uh from the league has found the rate of non-con injuries from the 2023 regular season were similar on both surfaces per ESPN’s Kevin cyer and Dan Graziano’s League officials confirmed that data showed that non-con lower extremity injuries which is what the main concern is for going with uh turf or grass is these lower extremities so basically anything from the hip down they worried about the lateral motion any sort of stop and start uh is where you’re seeing a lot of these guys fall and it is believed that grasses is easier but the in the incident rates per 100 plays for lower extremity injuries was 0 043 on sythetic Turf and 0.042 on natural grass the rates from 2022 were 0.048 and 0.035 for grass so the 2022 season did show a significant difference between turf and grass though the 2023 showed almost identical numbers between the two what I now while the data was collected by a joint committee made up of NFL officials and members of the NFL players Association and Jeff Miller the NFL’s Executive Vice President for communications public affairs and policy cited a need to look at all surfaces for ways to improve injury rates because of how similar the numbers were between grass and artificial turf this does seem to be interesting because there is a big push towards artificial or towards grass the numbers seem to be very very similar eerily similar and especially after a year uh of such a Jurassic difference between the two I mean 013 is a significant difference when you’re talking about these numbers so what is the Helix Turf that the Colts are going to be using the Helix Turf is we’ll go into this um the Helix technology is similar to memory and tenacity of muscle fiber allowing the turf to bounce back after repeated use the shape memory makes each fiber twist and that Twisted monofilament fiber in turn secures the infill to prevent migration and an infill from spraying creating an aesthetically pleasing playing surface the texturized fiber does not reflect life so it keeps a uniform look much more like natural grass that aspect of it does seem to be more towards the aesthetic and not necessarily towards player safety but next is the real fill infill with a unique pvel base and dust-free spr cubal rubber granules perella’s website the base facilities proper fiber support energy restitution and enhanced shock absorption and Rapid drainage that is for player safety so it does seem that this is again as much of a compromise as you can expect given the circumstances and I like that the Colts are going to be one of the first teams or you know among the first whatever teams to be doing this because it shows that they’re not afraid to pay what needs to be paid for um the facilities for the stadium to both look good and feel good and be good for player safety I think that’s incredibly important and it shows that the Colts are are in the dire in the right direction of protecting their players and keeping them safe in all things I think this is going to be good when you’ve got a guy and you’re wanting to the Colts are on the rise as far as fandom goes the numbers don’t lie the numbers are showing that the Colts are coming back and they’re going to be they’re really good over the next few seasons if you’re going to have players that you’re going to pay big money for even not you should just do it for players anyways but if you’re going to be one of the big Market teams like the Colts intend to be in Indianapolis then they need to do what’s best for player safety and I think that this is very important again especially when one of the leaders for this charge is uh Colts Center Ryan Kelly now while I understand that this isn’t the move towards real grass I do think this is a step in the right direction and it comes at a really good time it comes when Anthony Richardson’s coming back you’ve got Jonathan Taylor uh looking to make a push towards a 2024 MVP run um much like he had in in in 2021 I think this is the step in the right direction especially when you’re getting a team that is both bigger and better and faster when you’re talking about moving in lateral Motions like the Colts you know again as you get players um you don’t want to see what happen to Daniel Jones saquon Barkley Aaron Rogers guys who had significant injuries because of what is to believe be believed by a lot of players uh and experts to be because of artificial turf and this Matrix seems to be a good compromise and a step in the right direction but we will see going forward on if this is the right move or if it was just a move that kind of was a a scapegoat but I think it’s the right move and I think it’s good for Colts player safety

Indianapolis Colts Make Crucial Upgrades For Player Safety

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