Mark Davis may not have his father’s larger-than-life presence, but on the grass-versus-turf fight, he’s sounding a lot like Al Davis.
That connection matters in a league debate that keeps circling back to player safety and owner spending. The Raiders already play on grass at Allegiant Stadium, and Mark Davis has made clear he’s not interested in cutting corners when it comes to the surface his team uses.
“I just always felt that football should be played on grass,” Davis said. “That’s for safety purposes, No.
- I want it to look like a game was played, even if it’s an indoor field.
You see grass stains and everything else. I wasn’t going to a stadium without it being grass once I knew that capability was there.
Obviously, it added a lot of cost, but it’s worth it.”
That stance puts him on the side of the NFLPA and players who have pushed the league to move away from turf. The case against artificial surfaces is straightforward: they’re harder, they can lead to more injuries when cleats catch, and they don’t keep the field as cool as grass does.
For owners, though, the issue is money. Turf costs less because it requires less upkeep, and that’s the part many of them seem unwilling to give up.
A.J. Perez of the LA Times recently pointed out the contrast with FIFA, which is able to install grass in American stadiums for the 2026 World Cup while the NFL still struggles to do the same. Mark Davis, at least, has already chosen his side.
As Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio noted, Davis won’t cheap out or cut corners to line his pockets. He has the Raiders on grass because that’s what he believes his players want and need.
That willingness to spend is part of what separates him from the reputation many NFL owners carry. The league’s billionaire club often gets tagged as a “Boys club,” and the median owner is worth about $5 billion, so this is not exactly a group hurting for cash.
Davis, though, appears ready to be a problem for the rest of them if it means pushing the league toward safer conditions. He may not have Al Davis’s flair for battling the NFL at every turn, but on this issue he’s carrying the same instinct: protect the Raiders first, and worry about the rest later.
And if that means making some noise in the next owners’ meeting, so be it. Al would have liked that.
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