What are your thoughts on Field Turf?

Harvdog · Post by **Harvdog** » Tue May 19, 2009 11:04 pm

I was never a big fan of turf when I played. The carpet burn we would get on our arms and legs was brutal. It was faster than grass. I have always been a fan of the natural stuff but lately it seems like the fields are in such bad shape at the end of the year that the footing is terrible. It also hurt when you hit the concrete.

Texas is has joined some of the other teams in the Big XII by installing field turf. I think it looks pretty sweet

Thoughts?

SoCalTrjn · Post by **SoCalTrjn** » Tue May 19, 2009 11:47 pm

all carpet is bad whether its the older astro turf or the newer field turf youre still going to see an increase in injury.

Take a pair of football cleats out on to field turf, put 250 pounds of pressure on them and then twist, next do the same thing on grass, now apply those amounts of force to get the cleat to twist to your ankles and knees. There is no reason to ever play football on any type of surface other than grass

Left Seater · Post by **Left Seater** » Wed May 20, 2009 2:20 am

Harv, part of the decision was as you stated in that the field was crap at the end of the year.

UT also wants to host playoff games on Thurs, Fri, and Sat as long as it doesn't effect a Texas game. Pretty good idea when it comes to recruiting.

How long until ATM goes to field turf?

Blueblood · Post by **Blueblood** » Wed May 20, 2009 5:05 am

Left Seater wrote:
How long until ATM goes to field turf?

When they can get it past the KKK just outside of Grimes county.

Its been the "Best" thing to happen to Strawberry Canyon....

Did I just say "Best" ?????

Blueblood · Post by **Blueblood** » Wed May 20, 2009 5:07 am

Left Seater wrote:
How long until ATM goes to field turf?

When they can get it past the KKK just outside of Grimes county.

Its been the "Best" thing to happen to Strawberry Canyon....

Did I just say "Best" ?????

Van · Post by **Van** » Wed May 20, 2009 5:27 am

m2 wrote:Probably the "fastest" football player in cleats in the history of college football.

Smart, that you put "fastest" in quotes. I'm guessing by "fastest" you must really mean "not the fastest," since he's certainly not the fastest player to ever play college football.

Also, you're too young to've ever really seen Gale Sayers play. All you've ever seen of Sayers is a little bit of grainy NFL Films footage.

Terry in Crapchester · Wed May 20, 2009 12:03 pm

Van wrote:
m2 wrote:Probably the "fastest" football player in cleats in the history of college football.
Smart, that you put "fastest" in quotes. I'm guessing by "fastest" you must really mean "not the fastest," since he's certainly not the fastest player to ever play college football.

Also, you're too young to've ever really seen Gale Sayers play. All you've ever seen of Sayers is a little bit of grainy NFL Films footage.

I think I'm about the same age as 2oodles, and I've seen Gale Sayers play. On TV, of course, not in person, but I have seen him play live. Of course, he was at the tail end of his career by that point. I wish I could've seen him play before he blew out his knee.

And btw, under the category of first time for everything, I actually agree 100% with Schmick on the main topic of this thread. And, with apologies to Led Zeppelin, I come from the land of the ice and snow, so the grass really gets mucked up here by season's end. Still beats the shit out of turf, though.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial · Wed May 20, 2009 1:45 pm

Terry in Crapchester wrote:I think I'm about the same age as 2oodles

You think? For all I know mstool's a 13 year old Guadalajaran midget living in Dayton, Ohio; and has never stepped foot in the state of California.

King Crimson · Post by **King Crimson** » Wed May 20, 2009 2:11 pm

Left Seater wrote: How long until ATM goes to field turf?

there's that whole Aggie, growing thing. though the Oklahoma and Kansas aggies have had turf of some kind as long as i can remember.

i don't like the turf. i did see a feasibility study for switching Folsom to field turf that made a lot of sense financially. with real grass, any alternative use of the stadium has a massive (and I mean massive) insurance premium--which tends to make other profitable uses of the stadium less attractive to would-be leasing for events...and less coin for a resource that gets used 5 times a year.

CU switched the intramural fields at CU to it and Boulder High football stadium has gone to it recently...the intramural fields pisses me off since while it IS used for IM stuff that's only about twice, three times a week for a few hours in the afternoon...and what used to be a nice open, grassy space to hang, or get high and watch the sun go down or play frisbee or check out hotties sunbathing or other normal collegey type stuff....you don't really do on Field Turf. It loses something.

as an aside, as a kid we used to play baseball sometimes on the old putt-putt carpet on concrete turf at Owen Field....that was wild. talk about the game getting faster and all kinds of weird spin on routine but sharp hopping groudners. It was a trip.

Laxplayer · Post by **Laxplayer** » Wed May 20, 2009 2:58 pm

All of the high schools in our district have gone to the field turf and I can't stand it. Stand on that shit during the summer with cleats on. Your GD feet melt. Besides you still have to water it to keep it cool, then you can't eat sun flower seeds on it, drink anything but water on it, not to mention the bacteria that may get on it from cuts, scrapes, blood etc....Yes even though the grass wore out and it cost a bit more to re-seed, or sod it football was meant to be played on real grass where you can actually see who played in the game. Blood makes the grass grow......
I think our turf cost about 750,000 to install, so I'd be curious to compare the cost to seeding or re-sodding every year.

MuchoBulls · Post by **MuchoBulls** » Wed May 20, 2009 3:15 pm

I know that we're scheduled to have a field turf practice field installed in the next year or 2 since since most of the teams in the Big East use field turf (to my knowledge USF, Pitt and UConn are the only teams that don't). USF plays on one of the best natural grass fields around and I doubt that will change. The Bucs usually change the sod about halfway through the season to avoid all the wear and tear on the field.

M Club · Post by **M Club** » Wed May 20, 2009 4:33 pm

King Crimson wrote:there's that whole Aggie, growing thing. though the Oklahoma and Kansas aggies have had turf of some kind as long as i can remember.

The Big Ten had the same thing with MSU. They're actually world reknown for their, uh, grass? program but were the last team in the conference to go to grass, aside from Minnesota, obviously. Then everyone switched to field turf.

Michigan's pretty well stuck with artificial grass considering they dug a hole to make a stadium. Not even MSU and their grass professors could get that field in working shape.

Van · Post by **Van** » Wed May 20, 2009 5:13 pm

Terry, I don't recall the exact stated age of m2. It was plus or minus a couple years of us.

I do know that you and I are the same age. Gale Sayers played from '65-'71, and he wasn't Gale Sayers by the end of his career.

So, unless you're like Wolfman and you claim to remember clear details of Nazi prisoners being held in your local detention camps, even though you were maybe four years at the time, no, you don't have any solid recollections of watching Gale Sayers playing live.

At best, you were only seven years old. If it was during the time in his career when he was really Gale Sayers, you were a kindergartener, or younger.

There's also no way you remember seeing him live during his college career.

m2 is comparing Jahvid Merely Above Average to Sayers, as if he really has a good handle on how Sayers looked as a player.

Face it, m2 read where someone else made that comparison of Merely Above Average to Sayers, and now he's plagiarizing it. The only thing five year old m2 was into was making his patchouli scented Ken dolls gangrape G.I. Joe.

indyfrisco · Post by **indyfrisco** » Wed May 20, 2009 5:40 pm

I believe the mdouche is 46/47 assuming he wasn't lying saying he went to high school in the years he claimed to win the Cali High School championship. That's a BIG assumption, of course.

Terry in Crapchester · Wed May 20, 2009 6:13 pm

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:
Terry in Crapchester wrote:I think I'm about the same age as 2oodles
You think? For all I know mstool's a 13 year old Guadalajaran midget living in Dayton, Ohio; and has never stepped foot in the state of California.

Allow me to restate that. I think 2oodles claims to be about my age.

Van wrote:Terry, I don't recall the exact stated age of m2. It was plus or or minus a couple years of us.

I do know that you and I are the same age. Gale Sayers played from '65-'71, and he wasn't Gale Sayers by the end of his career.

So, unless you're like Wolfman and you claim to remember clear details of Nazi prisoners being held in your local detention camps, even though you were maybe four years at the time, no, you don't have any solid recollections of watching Gale Sayers playing live.

At best, you were only seven years old. If it was during the time in his career when he was really Gale Sayers, you were a kindergartener, or younger.

There's also no way you remember seeing him live during his college career.

I never saw Sayers play in college. I wasn't even born until most of his senior season was over.

I did see Sayers play in the NFL. It was toward the end of his career, a fact I sorta alluded to when I said

I wish I could've seen him play before he blew out his knee.

Van · Post by **Van** » Wed May 20, 2009 6:20 pm

Yeah, and like I said, that means you were maybe six or seven years old, tops, and that was pushing forty years ago.

You certainly carry no clear recollections from it. You were six. You weren't studying Gale Sayers' broken down play. You were studying the ice cream vendor's whereabouts, or your own belly button.

m2 is actually trying to say Merely Above Average actually reminds him of when he saw Sayers play, which is just absurd.

SoCalTrjn · Post by **SoCalTrjn** » Wed May 20, 2009 11:52 pm

How many times a year is a college football team going to play on their field in a season? 6????? 7 or 8 if theyre pussies???? Just use grass, I dont care what it costs the school to keep the grass up for those 6 games, one more player being able to avoid a knee or ankle injury is worth it. My sons had to play on a field turf field 3 times this year in Pop Warner and in every game, a kid from one of the teams got hurt, these are 110 lb and less kids, the stress put on joint and ligs at 3 times that weight and 5 times that strength is horrific. There is no reason to ever play football on anything but grass.

What happened to "perscription turf"? I seem to recall when USC went back to Ohio State the last time they kept talking about this new grass that stood up to the cold and the wet, was planted in to soil with a higher sand content and the field had drains in it. Why cant companies like Nike spend some of that r&d money developing heartier grass that will grow all season long and withstand more games on it instead of some new carpet that just injurs players. Go back east and look at the lawns 6 months a year, dead and brown, its not like they dont get rain and its not that fricking cold, my yards are dark rich green 12 months a year and the kids are constantly playing on them. Companies developing these fake turfs need to readjust their priorities and look in to natural grass surfaces for the stadiums, local fields and every lawn in this country.

King Crimson · Post by **King Crimson** » Thu May 21, 2009 12:31 am

Billy Sims? He did win the Heisman and was the NFL rookie of the year and 3 time Pro Bowler before he got hurt. and most impressively, led the Lions to the playoffs TWICE. LenDale was a nice player, but hey.

He's a deadbeat dad, bankrupt a couple times, and the Boomer thing at the Heisman is all about the Natty...but I don't remember him intimating any wrongdoing at OU in the media. which is not to say, it didn't happen....but the recruiting stories around Earl Campbell, Sims, and Eric Dickerson and such are plentiful. Cue Hornfan to claim Earl was recruited by the Virgin Mary wearing a UT hat.

Van · Post by **Van** » Thu May 21, 2009 12:40 am

All I meant by the Sims/LenDale comparison is that they're both embarrassing, once they open their pieholes.

Otherwise, Billy Sims is my all time favorite Sooner player, along with Lee Roy Selmon.

King Crimson · Post by **King Crimson** » Thu May 21, 2009 12:44 am

Van wrote:All I meant by the Sims/LenDale comparison is that they're both embarrassing, once they open their pieholes.

Otherwise, Billy Sims is my all time favorite Sooner player, along with Lee Roy Selmon.

yeah, OK. I hear ya about Billy. Billy and JC Watts were my faves....though, i wore David Overstreet's #22 in football as a flanker up into high school. Lee Roy was right at the cusp of my football consciousness so I can't speak to that much...though, the story is that after he graduated OU's coaches watched all of Lee Roy's game film in his career at OU and he was blocked off his feet exactly one time.

King Crimson · Post by **King Crimson** » Fri May 22, 2009 1:55 pm

word is Kansas is also going to Field Turf this year.

Harvdog · Post by **Harvdog** » Fri May 22, 2009 3:06 pm

I have always said, If a Sooner cheerleader cannot graze on it, you shouldn't play on it. :D That being said, I understand why some schools are doing it. At Texas, the stadium is used for high school payoff games. When you have 8-10 games over a weekend, it tears the field up. When the recovery time is 6 days to get ready for the next week, the field and playing conditions suck. I don't like it, but I understand it.

Blueblood · Post by **Blueblood** » Fri May 22, 2009 7:31 pm

King Crimson wrote:
Van wrote:All I meant by the Sims/LenDale comparison is that they're both embarrassing, once they open their pieholes.

Otherwise, Billy Sims is my all time favorite Sooner player, along with Lee Roy Selmon.
yeah, OK. I hear ya about Billy. Billy and JC Watts were my faves....though, i wore David Overstreet's #22 in football as a flanker up into high school. Lee Roy was right at the cusp of my football consciousness so I can't speak to that much...though, the story is that after he graduated OU's coaches watched all of Lee Roy's game film in his career at OU and he was blocked off his feet exactly one time.

My two favorite OU players growing up...

I use to wear a bandanna under my helmet playing pop warner football as a kid just because Thomas Lott did.

the truth

Van · Post by **Van** » Fri May 22, 2009 7:43 pm

Thomas Lott was also one of my all time favorite Sooners. Pruitt was another one of my favorites, once he was in the NFL. I was too young to really remember him at OU.

King Crimson · Post by **King Crimson** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:37 pm

Switzer says Lott was the best pure wishbone QB "ever". Pruitt averaged 9 ypc in 1971.

King Crimson · Post by **King Crimson** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:56 pm

Pruitt (and shit music)

SoCalTrjn · Post by **SoCalTrjn** » Sat May 23, 2009 1:26 am

Papa Willie wrote:
SoCalTrjn wrote:How many times a year is a college football team going to play on their field in a season? 6????? 7 or 8 if theyre pussies???? Just use grass, I dont care what it costs the school to keep the grass up for those 6 games, one more player being able to avoid a knee or ankle injury is worth it. My sons had to play on a field turf field 3 times this year in Pop Warner and in every game, a kid from one of the teams got hurt, these are 110 lb and less kids, the stress put on joint and ligs at 3 times that weight and 5 times that strength is horrific. There is no reason to ever play football on anything but grass.

What happened to "perscription turf"? I seem to recall when USC went back to Ohio State the last time they kept talking about this new grass that stood up to the cold and the wet, was planted in to soil with a higher sand content and the field had drains in it. Why cant companies like Nike spend some of that r&d money developing heartier grass that will grow all season long and withstand more games on it instead of some new carpet that just injurs players. Go back east and look at the lawns 6 months a year, dead and brown, its not like they dont get rain and its not that fricking cold, my yards are dark rich green 12 months a year and the kids are constantly playing on them. Companies developing these fake turfs need to readjust their priorities and look in to natural grass surfaces for the stadiums, local fields and every lawn in this country.
But you play in a pussy conference, and you fuck your sons.

Everyone knows that there are no bigger pussies in the world than the ones at Auburn

Van · Post by **Van** » Tue May 26, 2009 6:42 pm

'Spray, I notice that when it came to the assfucking your children part you changed the SEC's position from "we" to "I."

Sooooo, regarding assfucking their children, what you're saying is...

:D

L45B · Post by **L45B** » Tue May 26, 2009 7:56 pm

I preferred it when Ohio State played on natural grass, but it seemed that after the expansion of the Horseshoe was completed it was more difficult for the grounds crew to keep the field in decent shape by season's end. I'm no plant biologist, but I think it had a lot to do with the amount of sunlight that was blocked by the higher stands and lowered field. As well as normal midwestern fall conditions. I remember two weeks before the '06 tOSU-UM game, they had to dig up the entire field and import new grass just for one game. Didn't think it would take them too long to go to the field turf after that.

At no point, though, do I remember the grass field at the 'Shoe being worse than up in Ann Arbor. I remember being right by the field at the Big House after the 2001 win and the field looked like a huge mud pie.

SoCalTrjn · Post by **SoCalTrjn** » Wed May 27, 2009 7:53 am

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/ncfnation/0- ... -soon.html

its not USCs fault that the SEC teams are all ducking the Trojans.

Van · Post by **Van** » Wed May 27, 2009 4:33 pm

That story doesn't specifically lay the blame on the SEC. It only says USC's guy won't get into detailing who says yes and who says no. That article quotes USC's guy as saying it's difficult to work out the timing.

It doesn't say anything about USC calling, and trying, and the SEC saying no.

I get what you're trying to say, because I know USC is more willing than SEC teams to schedule those series, but that article doesn't support your contention.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Thu May 28, 2009 6:02 am

Fieldturf has become commonplace at local highschools now. I would imagine it's here to stay. I've played pick-up games on and and didn't mind it. But I have to wear pants even in the heat to avoid burns. It isn't as easy to burn yourself on as astroturf but you can still get a nasty one.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial · Sat May 30, 2009 7:00 pm

Iowa has made the switch as well.

That leaves MSU, Purdue, N'western, and PSU as the only Big Ten teams left with natural grass.

SoCalTrjn · Post by **SoCalTrjn** » Sat May 30, 2009 8:17 pm

Pac 10 is split in half, the 5 northern teams all use carpet and then wonder every year why they have so many injured players

Van · Post by **Van** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 5:41 pm

I just wanna know how the Pac 10 is split into five northern teams?

Is this some new version of TVO style compass smack, in which Cal is more northern than Stanford?

T1B

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