The NFL’s remaining two playoff video games will happen at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium and Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, each of which use turfgrass varieties developed at Oklahoma State University.
OSU’s Turfgrass Science Division has launched 9 varieties of turfgrass over the previous three a long time. Kansas City makes use of the NorthBridge selection—a basic launched in 2011. The Eagles play their video games on Tahoma 31, a more moderen grass from 2019.
Both NorthBridge and Tahoma 31 are varieties of Bermudagrass, which is prized on lawns in hotter components of the U.S. however usually struggles in cooler climates. The turfgrass staff at OSU interbreeds totally different grass species to enhance their resilience to drought, chilly and put on.
“It might take ten, fifteen years for an individual new grass variety be developed,” mentioned Dennis Martin, a professor and turfgrass specialist at OSU. “But we’ve got the machinery well-oiled and really rolling now, so there’s a new one put out every few years.”
These Bermudagrass varieties create a dense, springy and hardy enjoying floor, Martin defined. But throughout the winter when these grasses aren’t at their prettiest, subject managers can seed ryegrass on prime of them to create a camera-ready inexperienced.
Half of the NFL makes use of turfgrass of their stadiums fairly than synthetic turf, however JC Tretter, retired Cleveland Browns middle and president of the NFL Players Association, mentioned he believes it needs to be extra.
“NFL clubs should proactively change all field surfaces to natural grass,” Tretter wrote in a letter final November, citing statistics displaying that gamers maintain fewer foot, ankle and knee accidents on pure grass.
It’s not simply the NFL that depends on OSU’s turfgrass—golf programs, softball fields and personal lawns use varieties developed in Stillwater. The grass has even transcended faculty soccer rivalries.
“For our crimson and cream folks down the road, we’ve had a couple different OSU Bermudas on their field,” Martin mentioned.
According to the OSU Turfgrass Science Division webpage, turfgrass is a $40 billion business throughout the U.S. and a $1 billion business in Oklahoma.
“It’s almost getting difficult to watch professional football or baseball on the weekend and not see at least one game played on OSU Bermudagrass,” Martin mentioned.
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