Can an aarakocra player character grapple using their feet?
I've gotten into debates on this subject. Some (including myself) say that it should be possible to do. However, most - if not all - of the DMs I play with disagree. They state that a fly speed of 50 feet is game-breaking as it is, and that being able to grapple using their feet is too overpowered, as no other race is able to do such a thing and it's not given as a mechanical option (e.g. in the Talons trait).
The grappling rules also state that you must use a free hand, but creatures such as the harpy don't have such a restriction.
With aarakocra being part-bird, I feel it's a safe assumption to say it's possible while still having the other restrictions of a normal grapple, except that both hands are left free. To me (and a few others), it seems that with aarakocra being part-bird, it should come as a second nature of sorts, especially compared to earlier editions when their hands and wings took the same space.
I haven't found a ruling stating that they can't, but also none that say they can. A friend of mine has always had a houserule (which I then stole) that a grapple can be done even without a "free hand" if you have a way to restrict the target (like turning into a snake and coiling around them). I know some things can go unexplained and left open to interpretation in the rules, so I wanted to know if this was a special case allowed by the official rules or not.