BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore Ravens have played on artificial turf for the past 13 seasons because there wasn't enough sunlight reaching the field to grow grass.

Now, new technology will allow Baltimore to go back to old-school football. The Ravens will become the second NFL team to use artificial lighting to grow grass at their stadium.

After playing on artificial turf for the last 13 seasons, the Ravens will switch to grass at M&T Bank Stadium. Photo by Jamison Hensley/ESPN.com

The Green Bay Packers were the first to experiment with a grow light system in October 2010. And if it works in the frozen tundra, it should be able to maintain a Bermuda grass field at M&T Bank Stadium, where the entire field will only get two three hours of sunlight in late December.

Team officials said the decision to switch to grass was made after head groundskeeper Don Follett was convinced there could be a quality field at M&T Bank Stadium.

"Real football should be played on real grass," Follett said. "So here we go."

It will take the Ravens about 12 hours to lay down 80,000 square feet of sod on Tuesday and Wednesday. The team brought up the 42-inch wide and 100-feet long pieces of sod on a total of 12 truckloads from a farm in North Carolina.

The Ravens played on a grass field for their first seven years of existence (two at Memorial Stadium and five at M&T Bank Stadium), and the Baltimore Colts had a grass field for 31 years at Memorial Stadium.

Of the 32 NFL teams, there are 18 who play their home games on grass fields, including AFC North teams Pittsburgh and Cleveland.

"The real grass versus the artificial turf, the injury rate is about the same," Follett said. "But the players, their perception of the real grass is they like it better, and that's really where the push came from. They wanted real grass back at the stadium."