Brandon Marshall hasn’t played an NFL game in five years, and he believes MetLife Stadium is the culprit.
The former All-Pro receiver told Doctor Mike in a January interview that he blames the turf at the Giants’ stadium for his ankle injury that ground his career to a halt.
“I snapped my deltoid, freaking turf, oh my goodness I knew it was over,” he said.
“This play ended my career,” he said. “There’s been a lot of players complaining about this turf… it’s really ruining careers, that was pretty much the last of me, I felt like I could’ve played a couple more years, but that play was over.”
Marshall, who played one year with the Giants after two seasons with the Jets — including one Pro Bowl campaign in which he led the league in touchdowns — didn’t find much success after his season-ending injury in 2017.
He played in seven games with the Seahawks in 2018 and didn’t return to the NFL after that season.
Marshall is not the only player to take issue with the stadium’s turf, with Giants wideout Sterling Shepard suffering a season-ending ACL injury on the MetLife field last year, and 49ers star Nick Bosa tore his ACL in a 2020 matchup against the Jets.
The teams, having heard the criticism, will play on a new synthetic turf this season following a rising tide of injury concerns voiced by players.
“The players have been vocal and clear about this issue and it is a good step to hear them that change needs to be made,” the NFLPA said in a statement to ESPN last November when it was announced the stadium would change its turf.
“The change will not come soon enough, though, for players who will be at greater risk the rest of the season. We expect that whatever surface gets installed next year will meet the highest safety and performance standards possible.”
Marshall, who had a 13-year NFL career in which he totaled 12,351 yards and 83 touchdowns, isn’t ruling out a New York comeback — he said in May he would play tight end for Aaron Rodgers and the Jets if asked.
Credit: Source link
