Also this grass looks great on Sofi's field… wonder if we could get that all season,
Kittle shared that message in a post on X as the USMNT opened its World Cup run at the Los Angeles venue.
Kittle's 2025 Season and Playoff Injury
Kittle is coming off a 2025 season in which he hauled in 57 receptions for 628 yards and seven touchdowns. He suffered a torn Achilles during San Francisco's 23-19 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
That game was played at Lincoln Financial Field, which uses a combination of grass and artificial turf for NFL games.
World Cup Surface Changes at NFL Stadiums
Lincoln Financial Field was one of several NFL venues that changed the playing surface for the World Cup, as the tournament's games must be played on natural grass. SoFi Stadium received the same treatment for the USA opener Kittle watched, putting a grass surface on display at a venue that normally hosts NFL games on a different setup.
Other Players Back Grass Over Turf
Kittle is far from the only player advocating for the NFL to switch from turf to grass. New York Giants offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor shared his belief on the same issue, per Rohan Nadkarni of NBC News.
I'm going into year 10, and I can say wholeheartedly that grass feels way better than turf.
With MetLife getting grass, obviously it's cool for FIFA and the World Cup. It's one of the biggest stages in the world but, at the same time, the NFL as a whole is one of the most profitable businesses in the world, and so you would think that us as players would have a say in the fields that we get to play on.
Eluemunor pointed to MetLife Stadium getting grass ahead of the World Cup as part of the broader shift at NFL sites hosting tournament matches.
NFLPA Grass Preference Data
The NFL Players Association previously announced that 92 percent of the league's players prefer natural grass. Kittle's social post and Eluemunor's comments add fresh player voices to a debate that has intensified as World Cup preparations put grass surfaces inside multiple NFL stadiums.
