The Minnesota Vikings have had some major injuries throughout this year. Most Notably, their star quarterback Kirk Cousins and superstar receiver Justin Jefferson. While Jefferson came back to play, he was out for the majority of the year. While the blame for these injuries doesn’t lie simply with the turf of the U.S Bank Stadium, the home stadium for the Vikings, they are still going to change the turf this upcoming season.
After gaining more injury data about turf and how it impacts players injuries, the Vikings are changing their turf from a slit-film turf to a monofilament surface. In a Week 5 game against the Colts this season, The Vikings superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson suffered a non-contact hamstring injury on the U.S. Bank Stadium turf. Only a few weeks later, the San Francisco 49ers star tight end George Kittle complained about the turf after his game in the stadium saying:
“it’s very springy, but it’s basically cement.”
Clearly there is reason enough to change the turf just because of Jefferson’s injury, but after receiving injury data, the Vikings are going ahead with the expensive project to have new turf for next year.
The Minnesota Vikings Are Changing Their Turf
In a recent article for Sports Illustrated, Will Ragatz, writes about all the details for this turf change for next year and some of the reasons that Minnesota is going ahead with the expensive project. Ragatz Writes:
“The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority approved a $1.3 million bid from Texas-based company Act Global for the turf replacement project at its latest meeting on Thursday.”
Obviously, NFL teams have tons of money in the bank, but this a pretty hefty price to change the turf going forward. The Vikings clearly have enough data where this seems like a worthy investment for their players especially, but also all the players that will come play there throughout the year. He continues saying:
The Vikings looked into the idea of installing a grass surface at the stadium, but found that was not viable due to its multipurpose usage.
Clearly the Vikings put a comprehensive research into this change and It would be very beneficial for the teams to follow in their footsteps to ensure that the fields of each stadium are the best they can be for player safety. He goes on to mention as well that the Vikings are going to change their indoor practice turf as well. They are taking their play health very seriously after a year of too many major injuries.
Vikings changing their turf.
Here’s my Question: Why hasn’t the NFL insisted the Colts swap out their turf as well? I ask bc NFL & owners insist on having Combine in Indy every year…. How many prospects have been injured during the combine on that terrible turf? pic.twitter.com/8DQVKlHqCH— jason costigan (@Jasoncostigan) December 21, 2023