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A16 SPORTS
Friday 13 September 2024

The NFLPA would like to see more consistency when it comes to

playing surfaces at home and abroad

By WILL GRAVES and things didn’t get much vided better traction. How- added, “different coun- Howell thinks the NFLPA
AP Sports Writer better from there for either ell said the NFLPA and the try, different types of grass, and the NFL need to be
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The NFL team even after players league worked together to different climate. You saw “more definitive” about
Players Association would switched to cleats that pro- get the field in shape but what you saw.” what it needs to create a
like to have more consis- safe playing surface before
tency in what kind of turf its it begins talks with owners
members play on, be it at of prospective internation-
home or overseas. al venues.
NFLPA executive direc- NFL Commissioner Roger
tor Lloyd Howell Jr. said Goodell has been pub-
Wednesday that moving lic about the hope of the
forward it plans to be “as- league increasing the num-
sertive” when it comes to ber of international con-
having input on field con- tests it plays to as many as
ditions, particularly as the 16 in a season.
NFL’s international calen- “If you’re dealing with FIFA
dar expands. The Phila- (international soccer’s gov-
delphia Eagles and Green erning body), there’s really
Bay Packers spent a fair not much of a negotiation
amount of their opener in when it comes to the sur-
Sao Paulo, Brazil, last Friday face that a soccer player is
struggling to find their foot- going to play on,” he said. “I
ing inside NeoQuimica Are- think as our game expands,
na, which normally serves we’ll be equally assertive
as the home for a soccer about ‘These are the re-
team in Brazil’s top league. quirements in order to have
Eagles running back Sa- Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley (26) scores past Green Bay Packers linebacker our game played over-
quon Barkley slipped while Isaiah McDuffie (58) during the first half of an NFL football game, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, at the Neo seas.’” The NFLPA has simi-
trying to take a handoff on Quimica Arena in Sao Paulo. lar concerns about games
Philadelphia’s first series, Associated Press played domestically.q