Money, Not Terrorism, Motivating the NFL
Feb. 1, 2007 — -- Each fall in the United States, in the early hours of Sunday morning, devoted groups more dependable than the U.S. Postal Service gather in parking lots outside NFL stadiums to fire up their grills and ice down their coolers, embarking on the great American tradition of tailgating.
Whether grilling brats in Green Bay or mahi-mahi in Miami, tailgaters have become part of the fabric of the NFL.
When I worked for the Washington Redskins in 2000, I was shocked to see RVs and buses lined up waiting to get into the parking lots that opened four hours before kickoff.
Up until just before the game, there were often as many people in the parking lot as there were in the stadium. Those tailgaters formed the backbone of one of the strongest fan bases in the league.
Despite my appreciation for their commitment to the team, their dedication to their craft presented quite a challenge to me, as part of my job was to run game-day merchandise sales, and those people out in the parking lot were not buying T-shirts and hats.
The NFL seems to have cracked this problem: It has have banned tailgating in the Dolphin Stadium parking lots and pushed back the security perimeter to prohibit grills and coolers within a one-mile radius of the stadium.
All of this is part of the enhanced security precautions taken since the Sept. 11 attacks, after which the NFL notes it first acted to curb tailgating at the Super Bowl.
There is no doubt that terrorism remains a real and serious threat to America and Americans. The Super Bowl is ranked as a Level 1 national security event, right behind presidential inaugurations.
Heightened security measures are necessary and appropriate, and pushing back the security perimeter has some logical appeal.
But if the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service, the FBI, and the Florida and Miami police can adequately secure the vast expanse inside the cordon, they could probably fence off some portion of that space to accommodate the tailgaters.
Actions such as this one rings of "crying wolf," and I fear it undermines public support for the real and deadly serious mission of securing the homeland from attack.
Ken Gude is the associate director of the International Rights and Responsibilities Team at the Center for American Progress and was formerly the assistant director of retail operations at the Washington Redskins
Popular Reads
ABC News Live