Does the Ground in Berea Contribute to Browns’ Injuries?

Every year at Browns training camp, it feels like déjà vu. A couple of weeks in, we start hearing the same headlines: “soft-tissue injury,” “hamstring tightness,” “out for precautionary reasons.” In 2025, both quarterbacks Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel went down with hamstring issues before the preseason even got rolling.

Now, I know injuries in football come from everywhere: conditioning, workload, biomechanics, sometimes just plain bad luck. But I can’t help wondering if there’s something else lurking under the surface. Literally.

Here’s where the speculation begins (and I stress: this is just speculation). Berea, where the Browns train, sits on land historically shaped by glaciers, full of sandstone and compacted glacial till. In other words: hard ground. NFL practice fields are engineered with sand bases, drainage, and shock-absorbing layers, but if those layers are shallow or overly compacted, the field could feel a lot less forgiving than, say, the sandy fields of Florida or the loamy soil in California.

There’s science to back up why this matters. Runners and factory workers who spend long hours on hard surfaces like concrete, cement, compacted turf, develop higher rates of foot, ankle, and knee problems. Plantar fasciitis. Shin splints. Stress fractures. If everyday people like me feel those effects working on concrete floors or deep cement foundations, why couldn’t professional athletes, pounding out sprints and drills in August heat, experience the same stress in the form of recurring injuries?

I don’t claim to know how deep or well-cushioned the Browns’ practice fields really are. But given the steady drumbeat of leg injuries every camp, it seems fair to at least ask: is the ground in Berea part of the problem?

Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe it’s coincidence. Or maybe, just maybe, the roots of the Browns’ training camp injury woes go deeper than anyone thinks.