VoThe three-time All-Pro linebacker had a torn ACL in his right knee on Thanksgiving Day while playing on an artificial surface for Buffalo in Detroit.
“The game was conceived on grass. Natural grass is safer, it feels better,” Miller said on the AP Pro Football Podcast. “I’ve been injured twice on an artificial surface, so I know what it does to your fingers and your back.”
Miller is part of the “Flip the Turf” campaign, along with San Francisco 49ers tight end George Cattle and Green Bay Packers offensive lineman David Bakhtiari.
The campaign, promoted by natural grass company Pennington, urges players and fans to sign a petition on the site Change.org to get the league’s 16 stadiums using synthetic grass to eliminate it.
For years, the NFL players’ union has urged teams to switch to natural grass. In April, the organization released studies that ran from 2012 to 2022 and showed a significant increase in injuries on artificial surfaces compared to natural grass, in conditions where there was no physical contact.
In defense of the synthetic surface, the NFL noted that, in 2021, the number of injuries on both types of turf were very similar.
“Last year, the rift widened, as the NFL’s lack of credibility with the players on this issue showed that, as we suspected, 2021 was indeed an outlier year,” union president Jesse Tretter said. Which was published on the website of the trade union. “Now, 10 out of the last 11 years show exactly the same thing, natural grass is much safer than a synthetic surface.”
