Fans Run Scared at Falcon Stadium

This past weekend, my buddy and I decided to take a road trip to Colorado Springs to see the Notre Dame vs. Air Force football game. Between us, we've been to more sporting events than any two, employed, arguably well adjusted adults ought to admit. The thought was that the game at the Air Force Academy would offer us the chance to get a look at a highly ranked, storied team, a Heisman hopeful, a campus that we'd never seen and the pageantry of a service academy event.

What I saw was what it looks like when the fun is sucked out of a football game. The fun wasn't removed by the usual detractors. It wasn't that the game was completely one-sided. (The Irish destroyed the Falcons.) It wasn't compromised by drunken college kids, the weather, poor officiating, long lines or anything I'd ever seen before.

The scene was ruined because it is difficult to kick back and enjoy a game in a police state.

The initial thought was that there must have been a bomb threat. The second scenario we considered was that Gates, the new Defense Secretary, was going to make an appearance. Nope. Neither. Nothing of the sort.

I've never seen so many gun toting, hard charging law enforcement professionals in one place in my life. It made the perimeter of the White house look like Six Flags.

While stepping up to the water fountain, I heard a Notre Dame fan say to his friend, "We shouldn't have left our hunting rifles in the car." We talked. These guys drive all over the US to see the Irish play their away games and they'd never seen anything like if before either.

Adult military policemen (not cadets) were running through the stands like maniacs the entire game - acting as if the crowd was littered with America's Most Wanted. It was absurd. At one point, in the section next to ours, a hard charging, overly aggressive, gun toting MP in camouflage and a bullet-proof vest charged a woman seated in the middle of the section - only to ask her to sit down. The fans stopped watching the game to watch the overly-amped commandos that, for no good reason, were running up and down the aisles. This went on for the whole game, throughout the stadium. Some fans were scared. Other were appalled at the nature and the number of the MPs and other law enforcement professionals.

At one point in the third quarter, there were the standard 20 or so security folks in yellow jackets (standard at any event), 10 Colorado Springs policemen, 3 El Paso County Reserves, one bomb sniffing dog with a an "explosives specialist" (as it said on his shirt) on the other end of the leash, 8 MPs in full cammo and bulletproof vests. Six of those folks had barking dogs with them. That was just the coverage necessary to secure the playing surface.

At one point, as we walked through the concourse, one of the MPs with a dog casually shoved a group of us out of the way. When we turned around, he said, "II think you'd rather be pushed than bitten by this dog!"

Sure. I know. If I heard the stadium operations folks tell me why they had this kind of security at the game, it might make sense. Maybe it was a training exercise. Maybe there were dignitaries there that none were privy to. Maybe such security is necessary at any defense facility. We are at war, after all.

Nonetheless, it made for a terrible atmosphere. It left many of the 46,000 fans (many of them visiting from out of state) thinking that the Academy is an unfriendly place. A no fun community overpoliced by hyper-aggressive tough guys. The so-called pageantry of the service academy drove many of the unknowing guests away wondering if they were safe and imagining why they'd ever want to return. I know I was.