An Overview of The Sport: Astroturf

levels, athletes may no longer be seen as just people, nonwithstanding more than than(prenominal) than as expensive liabilities. The health of these athletes become more and more important as it is non only their health which is on the line, nevertheless excessively millions of dollars. Injuries do supervene in sports, especially contact sports, entirely astro cover increases these odds of injury. It entrust be shown that astro bugger causes increased wear on the bole and an increased number of, as well as more revolting injuries. Because of this, safer alternatives should be use in the stadiums.Astro turf is an unsafe surface to run for on and should not be used by athletes. The wear on a players trunk after a game is incredible, so new innovations argon always being created to lessen the impact of the sport on the athletes corpse better shoes, more protective pads. These things allow the athlete to compete at the same level, but at the end of the game be in better condition to play in the next one. If this is the slip, then owners of teams should turn getting rid of their simulated turf. Astroturf increases wear and tear on the body and causes more minor injuries than crazy weed.This wearing down of the body would lead to quicker fatigue and decreased actance. Ever since astroturf was introduced, people have been complaining nigh its effects and these complaints are heard even louder in this era. Athletes blame dummy turf for tendinitis, shin splints, and skintn bones. (Schrier,1987) Warren Sapp of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is one of legion(predicate) break upball players who suffers from the effects of the astroturf. He says, It feels like youve been track on bricks for deuce miles, your knees are real sore and usually you come out with golf club or 10 crapes and you dont even know it until you get into the shower and its ruin like hell. (Wharton, 1999)Sapps pain comes from the fact that running on astroturf is only a little be tter than running on mineral pitch. Astroturf is made of nylon fibers which are five-eighths of an atomic number 49 long stitched into a tightly woven mat. It is then located over a five-eighths-inch-thick foam pad for cushioning and glued to an asphalt base. (Schrier,1987) So all that separates the athlete from asphalt is less than two inches of rubber.The other(a) problem which Sapp mentions is turf burn. Since nylon resists tearing it also means that lilli mystifyian wounds are more likely to occur. Though these wounds are not injurious to the immediate health of the athlete they are painful and do dissemble the performance and possibly the longevity of the athletes career. Steve Young of the San Francisco 49ers says, Its not easy play on your back patio. If you wonder what playing on insubstantial turf is like, go out there and fall down a couple up of times. Then do what we do run and scrape across. (Unknown,1998)These ill savours toward artificial turf are felt thro ughout the NFL. Another player describe it as, sandpaper laid over concrete. A poll done in 1994 revealed that ninety-six portion of more than nine-hundred players said artificial turf leaves them feeling sorer than after playing on grass. Ninety-four percent believe turf is more likely to contribute to an injury and half the players identified a previous injury they believed to be caused by astroturf. And many of these injuries are real injuries there have been many season completion and career ending injuries on turf.These more serious injuries though are the primary ground why artificial turf should not be used in stadiums. A Cornell University study showed that, initiation and knee injuries occur on semisynthetic turf closely 50 percent more than on grass. And when injuries do occur, they often are more serious and difficult to heal than those that occur on This was the case for three premier players in the NFL this season as Vinny Testaverde, Wayne Chrebet and Jamal Ande rson were all dangerously injured because of Astroturf. The players were severely injured in a situation where there was no contact with other players.In Chrebets case two trainers said they had no doubt in their minds that he broke his foot because of the surface and nothing more. (Kirwan,1999) In the former two cases what occurred was foot lock. The friction between the shoe and the turf was too capital and so as the players tried to cut their foot stayed, but the lodge in of the body kept moving. This would not have happened on grass Dr. Willibald Nagler of Cornell University explains, When you play tennis on a soft court, you can slide into the stroke. That takes a lot of stress away from the ankle and knee.Grass allows you to slide too, a tiny bit, but it suffices, the same for football. (Bernard,1996) So when making a cut, the foot will not give stay planted and the injury will not occur. Nagler goes on to say, Football on grass results in less ligamentous injuries, and t hose that do occur are not as severe, according to the produce scientific articles. Furthermore, synthetic turf may exacerbate existing injuries, or make healing take longer. (Bernard,1996) These ligamentous injuries are usually the most severe injuries to occur because of the artificial turf.In an interview with Dr. Wayne Woodland, he explained that, there is also an increased risk of concussions, and the turf causes many athletes to get turf toe. cover toe is a strain to the ligament in the big toe which is not only likely to reoccur, but it can also be a serious injury. Deion Sanders was lost for the end of last years season and was take to have surgery to fix the injury and the Atlanta Falcons Chuck metalworker missed more than a month this season with the injury. Even more disturbing than the obvious increase in injuries is that there are at least three deaths and several more cases of paralysis which have been beatified on artificial turf.Players in the NFL are so livid a bout not wanting to play on artificial turf that in the past, the NFLPA have filed numerous lawsuits trying to get artificial turf tagged a hazardous substance. With the advancements of technology, astroturf needs to be replaced with something which is safer and less severe for the players. In most cases this alternative is grass.Though, many stadiums will not flip out to grass due to the economics of the situation. Grass is expensive to maintain and will limit the income of the stadium by limiting the erformances that can be regulate on there, such as concerts. Many people feel that the controlled purlieu is needed to allow for a better game. Players are looking for the rubber eraser of grass combined with a controlled environment and low cost. There are now many products on the market which claim to meet these standards.A new company called Fieldturf, in alliance with Nike, has released a product which more closely resembles the texture and response of grass. It is made of s ynthetic blades and is held up byan artificial dirt composed of silica and ubber that can be made of recycled running shoes. John Ingram, the Nebraska Cornhuskers director of athletic facilities says that, It is the closest thing to pictorial grass Ive seen, (Barnes,1999) The Cornhuskers played their entire season on the field and did not have any injuries this year. This coupled with the controllable environment made the players and vigilance happy with the field. This new field may be the wave of the future(a) as not only is it cheaper than grass and astroturf, but it is durable and safe.In a study done by Dr. Bill Barnhill, he put together that Fieldturf had less than fifty percent fewer injuries than grass and 7ty-five percent fewer than astroturf. Of these injuries, ninety-three percent were minor injuries resulting in fewer than seven days lost. Though some naturalists may not like the idea, the Fieldturf musical arrangement and other systems soon like it may begin to ma ke grass and even astroturf obsolete saving people money and players from injury. Injuries to players such as Vinny Testaverde and Jamal Anderson should not occur. Artificial turfs are dangerous and should not be used in any situation.The studies of injuries in professional athletes on grass compared to turf clearly demonstrate the risk that athletes are at when playing on these surfaces. Whether they are small or large, many of them should not happen and would not happen if the surface would have been on grass or the newer, more innovative surfaces. Management should recognize that they are paying their athletes millions of dollars and should be put in a situation where they will perform and continue to perform to their expectations for many years.