@@captainamericaamerica8090 no it’s not that. Even back in the 80’s and 90’s nfl players hated getting tackled on it. It’s good for a purpose like yours around a pool it isn’t good for football. Ya see getting tackled on astroturf is like getting hit on concrete since the turf was very thin.
Players today are lucky that astroturf has improved to the point where it mimics grass. Because back in the day they basically had a very thin rubbery surface that would be as hard as concrete during the ice cold winters. Imagine being a QB in the 70s, 80s, and 90s getting slammed into the ground by any NFC East player. That stuff shortened careers.
Astroturf specifically refers to the carpet over concrete concept. But yeah, the artificial turf we see now with the rubber pellets is way safer. Still not as good as grass in my opinion.
An Ode to this NFL Film: While you may want to say that the player's were tough, The honest truth is that they hated this stuff. For concrete and rubber were bound to offend, And we can see now that it created a trend. It helped concussions became a common mainstay, A fact that this league still doesn't acknowledge today.
Do u have any idea how long it took the league to even acknowledge concussions? Any changes that need to be made in the league need to be done by force. Because the league couldn’t care less about those players
Way back in high school, I played a baseball game on old-school Astroturf. It was the worst baseball experience of my life, as it was essentially playing on concrete with a thin carpet over it. Ground balls never slowed down, and by the 5th inning my ankles were crying. I can't even imagine trying to dive on it, let alone get tackled on it by 300+ lbs. linemen. The newer FieldTurf is far better, but nothing beats playing any sport on natural grass.
I’m not old enough to have played on the old style Astroturf but I’ve watched a lot of old football. I’m glad I got to see this close-up of it because I always wondered what it was like to play on. From the viewer’s vantage point it looks like linoleum.
My college had this for our intramural fields until 2009/2010. Even for flag football it was awful, especially if you went and played in the snow/rain. So many slips and burns. They put in the new field turf and that stuff is amazing! It's got some cushion to it and the blades of "grass" are actually long enough to bend so it rolls with you vs rubbing you raw. Amazing stuff.
I was one of the last players at my high school to play on grass, and many a time I was knocked on my ass. They switched to turf shortly after I quit. I never touched it, not even one bit. I often wondered what might have been. Then soon I'd remember, I valued my shin. So turf may be foreign to me. Though I play no longer, and so it shall be.
So funny to look back on this. Players were basically playing on putting green on top of concrete lol Also taking a moment to appreciate how amazing NFL Films has always been. One of the reasons the NFL has been so marketable over the decades.
From playing soccer in high school there’s completely different qualities and types of turf. Some older fields it was hard as a rock and looked cheap. Some and most were basic with the rubber pellets, and you could tell if there was a lot or almost none. Then there’s some recent field that look almost like a good grass field, even looks like little fibers of grass, not just green square cut plastic carpet. Either way it can get hot as hell. And can really burn if you slide on it.
I disagree. I would always take a grass field over even the best synthetic field. The only benefit to me in marching on a synthetic field was not having to worry about if it was level or not. The best field I ever marched on was my age out year of drum corps when we had a show at Columbus Crew Stadium. Since it was made for soccer it was perfectly level and really short.
Before we get all self-gratifying about grass turf, remember the Mudbowl between PIT and MIA. 3-0 overtime win for the Steelers; at one point, a punt planted itself, nose down into the muck, and just stuck there. The only time I didn't root for the Steelers: about halfway through overtime, I started rooting for the mud. Wanted my 0-0 tie. [Sigh]...
Me and my high school football teammates never play in artificial turf. Best high school team play in artificial turf is at the state championship before the turf has changed.
I March for the university of Tennessee. The bands practice field is turf and I hate it. It’s such an unnatural feeling when it gets hot and you can feel the heat radiating from the ground up.
A friend from college played in the high school playoffs in the astrodome. Like the guy in this video said, the paint is hard. He told me the painted Oiler helmet logo in the center of the field was really hard.
Astrodome turf was as bad as the Vet turf. When you think about old turf, you think about either the Vet, the Astrodome, or Montreal's Olympic Stadium in baseball.
I was thankful my school had artificial turf instead of natural grass. I was allergic and would get an itchy rash on grass, also the uneven ground/mud made traction more difficult, so I was more likely to trip/slip. Also gopher holes turned the game into a minefield for injuries. On turf you could run faster and cut quicker.
I've played on fields where every step ripped divots in the ground, I've played on pure mud, but I'd take either one over AstroTurf. Modern artificial grass is the way to go assuming you don't mind shredded rubber in every orifice of your body.
That stadium was as hardcore as it got, my grand father worked HVAC on it and talked to a couple of structural engineers that said that stadium was ready to collapse at any moment years before they tore it down
The Astrodome was the worst in the 80's. When the Vet had a bad reputation in the early 90s, the Astrodome was as bad as the Vet. Those two stadiums were on the top 3 along with Riverfront Stadium which was awful.
