Fans held up the field at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu, where the Atlanta Falcons and Cincinnati Bengals played Sunday, as a fresh case against the artificial turf still used at some NFL stadiums.

The field is a hybrid grass pitch that is lowered into an underground vault between uses, and while the Bengals won the Week 9 game 34-17, the surface under both teams pulled fans back into the grass-versus-turf fight.

The comparison came a few months after the World Cup, when FIFA’s rules had seven NFL venues that normally play on synthetic surfaces lay temporary natural grass, a switch that led the NFL Players Association to ask why owners couldn’t do the same for football players.

How the Bernabéu’s Retractable Pitch Works and Why Fans Took Notice

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported before the game that when the field isn’t needed, it breaks into six sections that sink into a vault beneath the stadium. There they sit stacked in a chamber roughly 100 feet down, under artificial light, with heat and moisture kept in check.

The system arrived in 2022, decades after the stadium opened, as part of an overhaul that also brought a retractable roof.

On game day, one fan shared a clip alongside a verdict aimed well beyond Madrid: “Only poverty franchises and programs play on turf.”

Others aimed squarely at the league. “The NFL should be ashamed,” another fan wrote.

A different fan landed in the same place, writing, “Turf is not even eligible for amateur leagues in Europe. This is shameful by the NFL.”

Another fan went further and brought player injuries into it, writing, “Goodell would rather watch three ACLs pop a week than pay for an elevator.”

One fan, meanwhile, compared the NFL with how fields are handled abroad, writing, “The rest of the world is moving grass by elevator… and the NFL is still out here laying carpet.”

Not every NFL venue fits that picture, though, since stadiums in Las Vegas and Arizona already roll their grass fields outdoors on trays, while the Bernabéu sends its pitch below ground.

One fan wrote, “NFL….take note! Better for players, better for games, better for fans.”

Another fan tied the Europe comparison to the league’s bottom line: “$20 billion a year in revenue and the NFL still treats grass like a luxury upgrade … Europe got elevators for theirs.”

The money argument came up again from a different fan, who wrote, “For perspective. The NFL does the same amount of revenue as Apple does in only AirPods.”

Artificial turf is permitted in European soccer, including UEFA amateur competition, provided it meets the applicable FIFA certification standards.

NFL Field Director Nick Pappas Weighs the System’s Appeal and Hurdles

The Bernabéu’s system comes with real complications, though, even in the eyes of the league official in charge of Sunday’s field.

Pappas was in charge of the field for the NFL, a role the AJC noted gave him more pull at the stadium than its visiting columnist, who was denied access to the retractable-pitch area.

He told the AJC on Thursday, “This is an extremely difficult environment for the team here to manage a playing surface.”

Even so, Pappas said, “I think this one has created interest amongst our NFL teams. I think the question is, can you maintain a pitch even in that indoor, enclosed environment (that) we’d expect in an outdoor (stadium) or beyond what a synthetic surface could provide.”

The Falcons, the designated home team in Madrid, play their own home games on a synthetic field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which Falcons players graded a C-minus in an NFLPA survey, according to the AJC.

According to the AJC, Pappas oversaw the Mercedes-Benz Stadium field from 2018 to 2022 before moving to the NFL. That stadium was also one of the seven NFL venues that put down temporary grass for the World Cup.

Asked about Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Pappas said, “Could Atlanta? … Don’t know. I mean, sure: Anything’s possible.”

Not every stadium could follow the Bernabéu’s lead, however. The AJC reported that a system like it depends in part on whether the ground beneath a venue can be dug out, and Pappas pointed to Hard Rock Stadium near Miami, where the water table would likely prevent such a system from being installed.

A Falcons spokesperson had not told the AJC whether the team is interested by the time its column was filed.