Eagles and Titans players had their cleats melting in 157-degree heat
A heatwave in Nashville paired with the Nissan Stadium turf created one of the most astonishing events to occur on a football field, Sunday — as the Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans quite literally had their cleats melting while playing in Week 2. With air temperatures over 95 degrees at kickoff it created a scenario […]
A record-breaking heatwave in Nashville combined with the turf at Nissan Stadium caused a bizarre situation on Sunday's NFL game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans. The air temperature soared over 95 degrees at kickoff, and the field temperature reached an astonishing 157 degrees, hot enough to melt the mid-sole of cleats.
The Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans players were visibly affected, with the Eagles even resorting to spraying water on players' feet to prevent injury. Jordan Mailata, a player for the Philadelphia Eagles, reported rolling his ankle twice on the same Sunday, which he believed may have been due to the plastic of his cleats becoming soft from the intense heat.
The extreme conditions also led Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni to receive an intravenous drip during halftime to combat dehydration. This situation brings to light pressing concerns about player safety related to weather conditions, particularly when it comes to playing surfaces. Artificial turf, it seems, is especially prone to trapping heat.
Natural grass, on the other hand, dissipates heat through evaporative cooling, but both artificial turf and its underlying rubber substrate absorb and retain heat, leading to a temperature that is up to 60 degrees higher than the air temperature. This is typical for playing surfaces.
The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) representative, Jordan Mailata, expressed the union's desire to push for a transition to natural grass fields across the league. According to Mailata, "I’ve never thought about how hot a stadium can be if it’s turf. [The heat] just sits there and bounces up into you." He insists, "We’ve got to bring it up. This is why we want all grass fields, to create a standard of play in the league where we’re not putting players in dangerous positions if we don’t have to."
Clearly, the situation calls for a long-term solution. It is simply not acceptable that NFL athletes are subjected to playing with melted cleats. Either the field surface needs to be altered to reduce heat, or the league should mandate the installation of cooling technology under playing surfaces to prevent such incidents in the future.
Written by urgent.news from SB Nation's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
