Malik Nabers injury revives concerns over MetLife conditions

The large knee injury suffered by the broader receiver of the New York Giants, Malik Nabers, rekindled discussions on the playing surface of the Gazon at Metlife Stadium.

An executive of an opposing team said this week that, due to the Fieldturf play surface, its players are “petrified” to play in Metlife. The executive added that if a player was breastfeeding an injury, he could be less able to play for a match in Metlife.

Others are also aware and concerned. The acting executive director of the NFL Players Association, David White, was in Newark, New Jersey on Monday for a visit planned with the Giants as part of his fall team meetings, and while he was there, he raised the question of the Gazon field of Metlife and his continuous history of injuries of the lower members of the season.

The Nabers suffered an LCA and a meniscus torn by the season and the meniscus in his right knee on Sunday when he jumped for a pass from Jaxson Dart. The wide receiver immediately reached his right leg while he was in the air and landed hard on the ground.

The Metlife Stadium, the house of the Giants and the New York Jets, installed a updated version of Fieldturf, called Fieldturf Core System, in 2023 which hoped that the drop in injuries. Last year, Metlife had one of the lowest injuries of the league among the fields using grass or lawn, according to NFL. Overall, there were fewer LCA injuries last year on synthetic lawn than grass and there has been no difference this year, said the League.

While at least 15 players have undergone a knee ligament or Achille tears in Metlife since 2020, the majority came before the installation of the new lawn in March 2023. Some of the most notable include Jaelan Phillips (Achille, 2023), Aaron Rodgers (Achille, 2023), Wan’dale Robinson (ACL, 2022) (ACLL, 2022), 2022222), Sterling Shepard (ACLL, 20222), 202222), Sterling Shepard (ACLL, 2022), 2022), Sterling Shepard (ACL, 2022), (ACL, 2022), Sterling Shepard (ACLL, 2022), ACL, 2022) Shepard (Aclle, 2022). Jabrill Peppers (ACL, 2021) and Nick Bosa (ACL, 2020). Large receptors Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall also underwent major ankle injuries in Metlife in 2017.

The jets say that their research shows that since 2023, the grass fields have had more knee ligament or tears of Achilles – with 38 injuries on the ground of the grass and 23 on the lawn, and since the update of the lawn in 2023, 3 injuries occurred in Metlife. They say that many more of these types of injury occurred in the training camp than during the season. The NFL adds both with the giants and the jets who call Metlife Home, the stadium welcomes twice as many games as places with a single team.

Metlife has ranked ninth best with regard to injuries to the extreme, according to data on NFL injuries of 2024. And for visiting players, who are generally more vulnerable on unknown areas, Metlife was in fact first, the safest in the NFL.

Beckham posted on social networks Sunday evening to ask the NFL to “Plz. Plz. Plz. [expletive emoji] GRASS.”

Dear @Nfl I mean that with the greatest love and respect. We (the NFL) take all the precautions in the world with everything else with regard to “health” and “security” players. PLZ. PLZ. PLZ. Get rid of the lawn. Thanks in advance. Luv

– Odell Beckham Jr (@obj) September 29, 2025

In each of the last two years, more than 90% of players have declared through the annual NFLPA survey that they prefer to play on the grass instead of the grass fields. An official of the NFLPA said by email this week that his office had heard players who are “perplexed” by stadiums who change as budding for the World Cup of Clubs and the World Cup, but who sticks to the lawn for football.

Despite everything outcry, the NFL does not intend to modify the last playing surface at the Metlife Stadium.

Nabers’ injury again shone a projector on the lawn problem, but an NFLPA official said that the subject was approaching even earlier, after the Bengal quarter of the Bengals of Cincinnati Joe Burrow underwent an injury to the toe of the lawn while playing on the Fieldturf at the Payyd stadium at least three months.

Bengals were one of the teams that went to the basic Fieldturf system in 2024.