As the debate over NFL playing surfaces continues, the league introduced a plan that aims to bring more consistency to all stadiums.

The new enhanced standards will have to be met by 2028, according to the NFL, and will be set through lab and field testing.

Nick Pappas, an NFL field director, shared some details about the plans for the program rollout.

Each team will be provided with “a library of approved and accredited NFL fields” before the 2026 season begins. Any new field will immediately have to meet those standards, and all teams will have two years to achieve them. Both grass and synthetic turf fields will be subject to the new standards.

Most artificial surfaces are replaced every two or three years, Pappas said. Natural fields can have a shorter usage span and are often replaced several times during a single season.

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Pappas added that the fields will have undergone extensive testing and been approved by a joint committee with the NFLPA.

 “It’s sort of a red, yellow, green effect, where we’re obviously trying to phase out fields that we have determined to be less ideal than newer fields coming into the industry,” he said.

“This is a big step for us. This is something that I think has been a great outcome from the Joint Surfaces Committee of the work, the deployment and development of devices determining the appropriate metrics and ultimately providing us with a way to substantiate the quality of fields more so than we ever have in the past.”

Pappas said fields have been tested in labs and on site using two main tools. One is called the BEAST, which is a traction testing device that replicates the movements of an NFL player. The other is called the STRIKE Impact Tester, which helps determine the firmness of each field.

The league’s goal is to find fields that are as consistent as possible for all 30 NFL stadiums and at each stadium throughout the season. Pappas said the “key pillars” for a field are optimized playability, reducing injury risk and player feedback.

The NFL has no plans to require natural grass fields. The league’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, said there are no “statistically significant differences” in lower extremity injuries or concussions that can be attributed to the type of playing surface or a specific surface despite widespread preferences by players for grass fields and complaints about surfaces such as the one at MetLife Stadium, where the New York Giants and Jets play.

“The surface is only one driver of these lower extremity injuries,” Sills said. “There are a lot of other factors, including player load and previous history and fatigue, positional adaptability and cleats that are worn. So, surfaces are a component, but it is a complex equation.”

The natural grass field for the upcoming Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, has been growing at a sod farm located a couple hours east of the Bay Area.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Who’s No. 1?

Not the Rams. Not for now anyway.

Before last Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers, the Rams held the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

After their defeat, the Rams (9-3) are No. 2 heading into Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals (3-9) at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.

The Chicago Bears (9-3) currently hold the top spot.

How closely are Rams coach Sean McVay and his players tracking the race for the No. 1 seed — and home-field advantage for the playoffs?

“It’s not important to me at all,” McVay said.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford apparently feels the same.

“That’s the last thing on my mind at the moment,” he said.

Understandably so.

The Panthers ended the Rams’ six-game winning streak and knocked the Rams from their perch atop the NFC.

The Rams are attempting to regain momentum and stay atop the NFC West.

“Last week serves as a phenomenal reminder of… you get all ahead of yourself, we won’t even be in the playoffs if we’re not careful,” McVay said.

Or, as receiver Davante Adams put it: “They were just singing our praises a week ago, and now, ‘We suck’ just because we go out and don’t win the game.”

Barring a complete collapse, the Rams appear on their way to the postseason. But the Seattle Seahawks (9-3) and the San Francisco 49ers (9-4) — also of the NFC West — are among the teams that remain in contention for the top seed.

This is the time of year when playoff projections are omnipresent.

“I’m not naive to the fact that every time you flip on NFL Network or ESPN or you’re watching games… and it pops up,” McVay said. “Our guys see it, but I think they’re also smart enough and humble enough to know that none of it really matters. … It’s something that you’re aware of, but it doesn’t move the needle for us at all.”

In his first eight seasons with the Rams, McVay led them to the Super Bowl twice, and neither road included home games for every round.

In 2018, the Rams had a bye in the wild-card round, and then defeated the Dallas Cowboys at the Coliseum and the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome en route to Super Bowl LIII, where they lost to the New England Patriots.

In 2021, the Rams did not have a bye. They defeated the Cardinals at SoFi Stadium, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa and the San Francisco 49ers at SoFi Stadium to advance to Super Bowl LVI. The Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium to win the title.

After Sunday’s game, the Rams play host to the Detroit Lions and then play a “Thursday Night Football” game at Seattle. They travel to Atlanta to play the Falcons, and finish the season at home against the Cardinals.

“If you said, ‘would I be happier if we ended up being able to be in a position where that means we won more games that maybe gave you a chance to get an automatic bid to the Division Round?’ Yeah, of course,” McVay said.

The last two seasons, the Rams were eliminated from the playoffs on the road.

In 2023, the Lions beat them in a wild-card game at Ford Field. Last season, the Rams lost in the divisional round at Philadelphia to the eventual Super Bowl-champion Eagles.

“I don’t think being on the road had anything to do with us coming up short in those games,” McVay said.

If the Rams have clinched the No. 1 seed or a playoff spot before the finale against the Cardinals, McVay, as he did the past few seasons, might opt to rest most starters.

“We’re trained to do whatever is right in front of us and if that is to go play a game for this seed, all the marbles or whatever it is, we’ll go do it,” Stafford said. “If it’s to sit, rest and take care of yourself, you do that.

“We’re not anywhere near that conversation at the moment. We’re laser focused on Arizona and trying to get the result that we want.”

Transgender comedian Stacy Cay incited backlash on social media Friday after making a joke about former high school volleyball player Payton McNabb’s brain injury. 

Cay’s joke made light of the fact McNabb suffered a concussion, brain bleed and permanent whiplash after being spiked in the head by a biological male trans athlete during a North Carolina high school match in 2022. Cay called footage of the incident “pretty funny.” 

“They don’t ever want to show the clip of what happened because it’s pretty funny actually,” Cay said. 

“She gets hit right in the head and then falls over like a toddler. And I’m like ‘Oh, she was really like this before.’ I don’t know if there’s a nice way to say this, but she should have been waring a helmet. She shouldn’t have been out there with the normal people.”

McNabb provided a statement to Fox News Digital in response to Cay’s comments. 

“A grown man mocking a teenage girl’s traumatic brain injury isn’t comedy — it’s cruelty. My story isn’t a punchline. It’s a warning about what happens when adults ignore reality and girls pay the price. I suffer from something that changed my life forever. Your jokes won’t silence me; they only prove why this fight matters,” McNabb said. 

Cay’s joke incited backlash from other Save Women’s Sports activists, including Riley Gaines and XX-XY Athletics co-founder Jennifer Sey. 

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McNabb’s story has become one of the flashpoint moments in the cultural movement to protect women’s sports from trans athletes and has been cited by government officials, including President Donald Trump and U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon. 

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McNabb testified before Congress at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Subcommittee’s “Unfair Play: Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” hearing in May. 

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