ABSTRACT
The increase in artificial turf in the 1970s was thought to have contributed to increased
incidence of turf toe injury in National Football League (NFL) players. To our knowledge,
there are no publications that have analyzed the impact of this injury on performance.
This is a retrospective case series. Online resources were used to identify NFL players
who sustained a turf toe injury between the 2011 and 2014 seasons. The performance
of each offensive skill player was analyzed separately by calculating their power
rating (PR) over 6 seasons. Injured offensive skill players were then compared to
a control group consisting of all RBs and WRs without a turf toe injury who competed
in the 2012 season. Seventy-one turf toe injuries were identified. Twenty-nine occurred
on grass, 29 on turf and the playing surface of 13 injuries could not be identified.
The average PR prior to injury was 105.7/season (7.3/game), 87.3 (6.9/game) for the
season of injury and 115.5 (8.1/ game) for postinjury seasons. The PR was not significantly
different after a turf toe injury compared to before injury or to uninjured control
player. There was no significant difference in NFL players’ performances after turf
toe injury based on power ratings.
Level of Clinical Evidence
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 22, 2022
Footnotes
Online public information was used with no risk to human or animal subjects. Consent was not needed. The study was exempted from institutional research board review.
Financial Disclosure: None reported.
Conflict of Interest: None reported.
Identification
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© 2022 by the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons. All rights reserved.
