Field Turf vs Natural Grass in American Journal of Sports Medicine Here is very good article written by other NFL team physicians regrding the injury rates on these popular playing surfaces. The old artifical turf was associated with higher injury rates, but this paper examines the newer type of turf that hopefully will act more like natural grass. The authors found that overall injury rates were similar, but ACL tears and eversion (high-ankle) sprains were more common on Field Turf. Note that this study was done on NFL players, so it may not apply to everyone. Dr. L.