
Lower limb injury rate in the National Football League (NFL) is greater on synthetic turf than on natural turfgrass due to differences in peak load, implying that load-limiting mechanism improvements on synthetic turf could reduce such injuries. To guide these improvements, a recent paper featuring PISC Senior Scholar Kristy Arbogast, PhD, investigated the peak loads of natural turfgrass when loaded by a cleated footform and corridors that define the load–displacement response. After testing various grasses, the study found that tests on Kentucky bluegrass and two cultivars of hybrid bermudagrass generated peak force<4.95 kN and torque<173 Nm, which would be expected to mitigate injury risk. In full-power tests, bermudagrass withstood significantly greater peak loads than Kentucky bluegrass, implying that continuing study of these grasses could bring about major improvements to synthetic football turf.