San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle had a message for the NFL during Team USA’s FIFA World Cup opener on Friday.
The Americans played their first game at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, a 4-1 win over Paraguay. Because FIFA requires games to be played on natural grass, SoFi and the other stadiums hosting games have been made to remove their usual turf and replace it for the event.
Kittle was all too eager to point that out during the game.
“Also this grass looks great on Sofi’s field… wonder if we could get that all season,” Kittle wrote on X.
Also this grass looks great on Sofi’s field… wonder if we could get that all season
— George Kittle (@gkittle46) June 13, 2026
The NFL has long refused to mandate grass fields, as many NFL stadiums are also used for concerts and events that would damage grass fields much more than they do to turf. On the other hand, players have overwhelmingly indicated that they have a preference for playing on grass.
Some stadiums are known to be worse than others in the turf department. The league maintains that all turf used during games meets the league’s expectations for a playing field, but seeing World Cup players get to play on grass while they do not has been understandably annoying for a lot of NFL players.
Kittle would be more concerned by this than most. He suffered a torn Achilles in the playoffs last season on Philadelphia’s hybrid turf field.
