Rams' maligned playing surface will be replaced

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Rams, long having complained about the rock-hard consistency of their artificial playing surface at the Edward Jones Dome, are getting a new field next season.

Officials on Tuesday announced that the new synthetic playing surface -- FieldTurf -- will replace the original AstroTurf surface.

The Rams' lease with the city, St. Louis County and the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission requires that the stadium turf be in the top eight of NFL stadiums by July of this year. FieldTurf has become the standard for artificial fields in the NFL and has been likened to playing on natural grass.

The Rams have played on the same carpet-over-concrete field since the dome opened in 1995, and Rams coach Mike Martz has complained various times about the unforgiving nature of that surface. Running back Steven Jackson, the team's first-round pick last year, battled a knee injury his rookie year that the coach blamed on the team's home field.

The past few seasons, the Rams' indoor practice site west of St. Louis has had FieldTurf. The team also has several natural grass fields at its complex.

The Convention and Visitors Commission initially had resisted the changeover in the dome, fearing it would hinder the site's ability to stage conventions and trade shows. Given that, the Rams -- until Tuesday's announcement -- had the last old-style artificial turf field in the NFL.

The industry is working to develop a tray system in which the field can be removed one section at a time, but the technology does not yet exist.

Health concerns also brought the dome's playing field into question. In February, the New England Journal of Medicine detailed a rash of infections developed by five Rams players after they sustained turf burns in 2003.

Turf burns occur frequently when players are tackled or slide on the ground and are much more common on artificial turf such as that at the dome. The infections forced the five Rams to miss a combined 17 days of practice or games, with infections recurring for three of the players.

All of the abscesses were large -- five to seven centimeters.

Similar infections were found on two or three members of the San Francisco 49ers after a Sept. 14, 2003, game in St. Louis, a 49ers spokesman said. Those infections were minor, and none of the infected 49ers missed games.

More than 20 NFL teams have switched to FieldTurf, the company said, trumpeting on its Web site that the FieldTurf system emulates natural grass, provides better player safety and reduces maintenance costs.

The company also claims the turf offers the flexibility of switching the field from one sport to another or to host a variety of sporting events, concerts and other special events directly on top of the FieldTurf surface.