With the World Cup coming soon, multiple NFL stadiums have torn up their artificial turf and installed high-quality, FIFA-compliant grass pitches. Then, after the tournament ends, the grass will be removed and replaced with artificial turf again.
49ers defensive end Nick Bosa, whose team will play five 2026 games at stadiums that perform the turf to grass back to turf transformation, was asked about the decision to switch the surfaces at those venues to grass before putting the fake stuff back in.
"Yeah, it's a little bizarre," Bosa said. "But what can you expect?"
That says it all. It's all about money. It's cheaper to have turf for NFL games. And it's expensive, but necessary, to install grass in order to make the extra money that comes from hosting World Cup games.
The 49ers will play this year at Seattle (Week 5), at Atlanta (Week 7), at Dallas (Week 10), at the Giants (Week 13), and at the Chargers (Week 15). All five stadiums will have grass for the summer before returning to artificial turf.
In 2020, Bosa suffered a torn ACL on artificial turf at...