Steelers Now
A few Pittsburgh Steelers leaders — namely Cam Heyward and Patrick Queen — saw what FIFA did for its players in the World Cup, mandating natural grass for all matches in the tournament. They’re wondering why the NFL can’t do the same in the name of their own safety.
The Steelers have had issues with the grass surface at Acrisure Stadium over the years, but making things better will put a sizable dent in the team’s wallet. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio explained why.
“It’s expensive,” Florio said Wednesday on 93.7 The Fan. “It’s expensive to install it, to maintain it and it also makes it harder to have other events in your venue. What do you do to protect that grass when you’re gonna have a Kenny Chesney concert or a tractor pull or whatever else you’re gonna have in this big arena? … They like to do stuff when there aren’t football games being played.”
Steelers president Art Rooney II said at the NFL Owners Meetings that the team was in the middle of replacing Acrisure Stadium’s playing surface. The Steelers were tagged with an F- grade for their home playing surface in their 2026 NFLPA report card, the worst in the league.
Florio believes, if it continues to cause headaches, the Steelers could just get rid of grass for good in the future and do exactly what their players are pushing against.
“Art Rooney has left the door open to switch to turf,” Florio said. “If this next try at grass that isn’t ass fails, they may go to FieldTurf or whatever the current fake stuff is. … (It’s cheap) enough to get them to refuse to change it. It’s that simple. It’s expensive, and to do it right, it’s very expensive. I think one of the problems, frankly, with the Steelers’ grass has been they’ve been trying to do grass on the cheap.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Analyst Believes Steelers Could Do Exactly What Players Are Campaigning Against
