The playing surfaces at every NFL stadium will have to meet new enhanced standards set through lab and field testing by the start of the 2028 season.
NFL field director Nick Pappas detailed the plans for a program on Thursday that will provide each team “a library of approved and accredited NFL fields” before the start of next season. Any new field will immediately have to meet those standards and all teams will have two years to achieve the standards, whether they use a grass or synthetic surface or a hybrid.
Most artificial surfaces are replaced every two or three years, Pappas said. Natural fields can be replaced several times a season.
Pappas said the fields will have undergone extensive testing and been approved by a joint committee with the NFLPA.
“It’s sort of a red, yellow, green effect, where we’re obviously trying to phase out fields that we have determined to be less ideal than newer fields coming into the industry,” he said. “This is a big step for us. This is something that I think has been a great outcome from the Joint Surfaces Committee of the work, the deployment and development of devices determining the appropriate metrics, and ultimately providing us with a way to substantiate the quality of fields more so than we ever have in the past.”
Pappas said fields have been tested in labs and on site using two main tools. One is called the BEAST, which is a traction testing device that replicates the movements of an NFL player. The other is called the STRIKE Impact Tester, which helps determine the firmness of each field.
The goal of the league is to find fields that are as consistent as possible across all 30 NFL stadiums, as well as at each stadium throughout the season. Pappas said the “key pillars” for a field are optimized playability, reducing injury risk and player feedback.
The NFL has no plans to require natural grass fields across the league. The league’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, said there are no “statistically significant differences” in lower extremity injuries or concussions that can be attributed to the type of playing surface or a specific surface, despite widespread preferences by players for grass fields and complaints about surfaces such as the one at MetLife Stadium, where the New York Giants and Jets play.
“The surface is only one driver of these lower extremity injuries,” Sills said. “There are a lot of other factors, including player load and previous history and fatigue and positional adaptability and cleats that are worn. So surfaces are a component, but it is a complex equation, and so I’m excited about where we are in the work because I think we’ll get away from a very crude measurement of artificial here and the grass here, and now we can say for any individual surface, let’s look at the biophysical properties of that surface. How might those correlate with injury? And then, obviously, how do we optimize them?”
Pappas also shared plans for the Super Bowl to be held on Feb. 8 at the San Francisco 49ers’ home at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The field has been growing at a sod farm about two hours east of the Bay Area, with Pappas making several visits over the past 18 months to monitor the field.
The league will plan to install the field around the third week in January — or later if the 49ers could be hosting playoff games.
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New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, front, is sacked by New York Giants linebacker Zaire Barnes, back, during the second half of an NFL football game Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
New York Giants running back Devin Singletary (26) scores a touchdown against New England Patriots safety Jaylinn Hawkins (21) during the second half of an NFL football game Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
FILE - The NFL shield is displayed at midfield during the Super Bowl 59 NFL football game, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)
GENEVA (AP) — Public broadcasters in Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia on Thursday pulled out of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest after organizers decided to allow Israel to compete, putting political discord on center stage over a usually joyful celebration of music.
The walkouts came after the general assembly of the European Broadcasting Union — a group of public broadcasters from 56 countries that runs the glitzy annual event — met to discuss concerns about Israel’s participation, which some countries oppose over its conduct of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
At the meeting, EBU members voted to adopt tougher contest voting rules in response to allegations that Israel manipulated the vote in favor of their contestants, but took no action to exclude any broadcaster from the competition.
The feel-good pop music gala that draws more than 100 million viewers every year has been roiled by the war in Gaza for the past two years, stirring protests outside the venues and forcing organizers to clamp down on political flag-waving.
“It’s a historic moment for the European Broadcasting Union. This is certainly one of the most serious crises that the organization has ever faced,” said Eurovision expert Dean Vuletic. “Next year, we’re going to see the biggest political boycott of Eurovision ever."
Vuletic, author of "Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest," predicted “tense” weeks and months ahead as other countries contemplate joining the walkout and protests set to overshadow the contest's 70th anniversary in Vienna next May.
A report on the website of Icelandic broadcaster RUV said its chiefs would meet next Wednesday to discuss whether Iceland would take part: Its board last week recommended that Israel be barred from the event in the Austrian capital.
The broadcasting union said it was aware that four broadcasters — RTVE in Spain, AVROTROS in the Netherlands, RTÉ in Ireland and Slovenia’s RTVSLO — had publicly said they would not take part.
A final list of participating countries will be announced by Christmas, EBU said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on social platform X that he was “pleased” Israel will again take part, and hoped "the competition will remain one that champions culture, music, friendship between nations and cross-border cultural understanding.”
“Thank you to all our friends who stood up for Israel’s right to continue to contribute and compete at Eurovision,” he added.
Austria, which is set to host the competition after Viennese singer JJ won this year with “Wasted Love,” supported Israel’s participation. Germany, too, supported Israel along with countries like Switzerland and Luxembourg, Vuletic said.
AVROTROS, the Dutch broadcaster, said the participation of Israel “is no longer compatible with the responsibility we bear as a public broadcaster.”
Spain's RTVE said the situation in Gaza — despite the recent ceasefire — and "Israel’s use of the contest for political purposes, make it increasingly difficult to maintain Eurovision as a neutral cultural event.”
RTÉ said Ireland's participation “remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza" and the humanitarian crisis there.
Some broadcasters — which run their country's news programs and wanted Israel kept out — cited killings of journalists in the conflict in Gaza and Israel's continued policy of denying international journalists access to the territory.
Israeli broadcaster KAN's chief executive Golan Yochpaz questioned whether EBU members are "willing to be part of a step that harms freedom of creation and freedom of expression.”
KAN officials said the Israeli broadcaster was not involved in any prohibited campaign intended to influence the results of the latest song contest in Basel, Switzerland last May — when Israel's Yuval Raphael placed second.
The contest pits acts from dozens of nations against one another for Europe's musical crown. It strives to put pop before politics, but has repeatedly been embroiled in world events. Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The war in Gaza has been its biggest challenge, with pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating against Israel outside the last two Eurovision contests in Basel, Switzerland, in May and Malmo, Sweden, in 2024.
Opponents of Israel's participation cite the war in Gaza, which has left more than 70,000 people dead, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government and whose detailed records are viewed as generally reliable by the international community.
Israel’s government has repeatedly defended its campaign as a response to the attack by Hamas-led militants that started the war on Oct. 7, 2023. The militants killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — in the attack and took 251 hostage.
A number of experts, including those commissioned by a U.N. body, have said that Israel’s offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide, a claim that Israel — home to many Holocaust survivors and their relatives — has vigorously denied.
A boycott by some European broadcasters could have implications for viewership and money at a time when many broadcasters are under financial pressure from government funding cuts and the advent of social media.
The pullouts include some big names in the Eurovision world. Spain is one of the “Big Five” large-market countries that contribute the most to the contest. Ireland has won seven times, a record it shares with Sweden.
The controversy over Israel's 2026 participation also threatens to overshadow the return next year of three countries — Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania — after periods of absence because of financial and artistic reasons.
“Next year’s edition is certainly going to be one of the most politicized ever,” Vuletic said. “It’s the 70th anniversary. It was meant to be a big celebration, a big party, but it’s going to be shrouded in political controversy yet again.”
Lawless reported from London.
FILE - Singer Yuval Raphael, from Israel, holds the national flag during a dress rehearsal for the Grand Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, May 16, 2025, in Basel, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
FILE - Israeli fans cheer for Yuval Raphael, from Israel, after she performed during the semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
FILE - JJ, from Austria, stands on the stage with his trophy after winning the Grand Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
