NFL - Reduce tailgating time

From USA Today:

NFL targeting binge drinking among fans in new season
By Michael McCarthy, USA TODAY

The NFL will try to crack down on binge drinking by fans at games during the 2009 season.

Following up on the Fan Code of Conduct it implemented last season, the league office is making recommendations to teams about maximum serving sizes for beer, wine and spirits sold at games and about the number of alcoholic drinks a customer can purchase at one time.

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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2009-08-20-nfl-beer-sales_N.htm

LOL

soon alcoholic beverages will be illegal at public sport functions



u heard it here first

ALP said:

LOL

soon alcoholic beverages will be illegal at public sport functions

u heard it here first

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I'm afraid you're absolutely right. Another intrusion by Big Brother into our lives...and this coming from a non-drinker.

I literally can not drink with the medication I am on, and this pisses me off so freaking much. I hate any kind of big brother type scenarios, and I am a Marine... lol used to people telling me what to do...

I have wondered to myself in the past, "How could prohibition have ever happened? That's just silly".

Well... now I'm seeing the seeds of it. This whole use of the word "binge drinking" annoys me. Anyone who drinks enough to be drunk is "binge drinking" and the negative connotation makes it a bad thing. Guess what? I'm an adult. I can choose to be drunk.

Heil, mein Führer Goodell!

All this means to me is that, before I start tailgating, I start drinking hard liquor either at the house or a bar, THEN I go and tailgate and switch up to beer. There's really no way that the NFL can control how drunk a fan gets outside of the stadium so this is a really ridiculous notion. Baddell is just trying to be a control freak.

Rediculous. What has happened to the concept of "personal responsibility?"

Government at all levels seems determined to protect us from ourselves, to make certain that everyone can claim to be some form of "victim" in order to escape being responsible for their own choices, their own actions.

So you buy a bigger cooler to fit more beer in to have before the game and you sneak a few nips in, whats the big deal? I'd rather do that anyways then buy the watered down $8.50 beers

Gwedd said:

Rediculous. What has happened to the concept of "personal responsibility?"

Government at all levels seems determined to protect us from ourselves, to make certain that everyone can claim to be some form of "victim" in order to escape being responsible for their own choices, their own actions.

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Personal responsibility? Huh? What's that?

This is insane. Jolly Roger shouldn't be trying to control the customers. What's next? Noise control?

How does he propose monitoring the private lots off site?

Why doesn't he just force all patrons to take a breathalizer before entering the stadium, that would solve this "problem".

ALP said:

LOL

soon alcoholic beverages will be illegal at public sport functions



u heard it here first

Click to expand...

I doubt it. They'll probably ban bringing your own coolers to your tailgate party.......but gladly sell you 2 at a time for 9 bucks a pop.

Our CFL team has a 2 beer limit on single purchases and our laws don't allow for tailgating. Still plenty of hammered people at the games and it doesn't make the games any less fun. I don't know how the NFL plans to police tailgating though. I imagine that the stadiums don't ridiculously intoxicated fans in for the games anyway?

They just limited tailgating and drinking in the parking lot at Gillette Stadium to three hours for the Kenny Chesney concert last Saturday. You were let in the stadium early (for an extra $55) but weren't allowed to drink until 1pm for a 4pm show.

[EDIT: spam deleted, please refrain]

Not that I'm in favor of this, but one, what does this have to do with government?

And two, I visit three or four NFL stadiums each season. Foxboro used to be wild, but Buffalo and the Jets games are still totally out of control.

WHat do you guys suggest? If I'm an owner, I have every right to want to crack down on drunken, puking, violent, crazies?

I had an extra ticket for last year's Buffalo-New England game and invited my father-in-law along. Boy, he was not ready for a rowdier than usual crowd (rowdier cause the win was blowing 70 mph). It was a madhouse, and these were not the cheap seats.

I wish everyone could consume their 4 or 5 beers and be done with it, but people are totally out of control. And stupid. Because there are many hundreds of DWI arrests after the game. A huge amount of people.

xmarkd400x said:

I'm an adult. I can choose to be drunk.

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I agree you can choose to be drunk.

You can not choose to drive drunk.

The policy they really should have is for every car that drives into the parking lot all the passenagers over 21 are given one colored bracelet. The driver and all persons under 21 are given another color. If you are under 21 or the driver and you are caught with an alcholic beverage you can watch the game from the foxoboro lockup.

I fully support your right to be totally blitz on your couch at home in front to the TV.

Bertil said:

I'm afraid you're absolutely right. Another intrusion by Big Brother into our lives...and this coming from a non-drinker.

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Yeah Big Brother isn't a multi-national corporation trying to protect its public image against the ******ed drunk manchildren who do their best to ruin every game for those around them.

Big Brother = Government, not a private entity like the NFL.

You can drink all you want at Sunday, just not at an NFL game if they so choose and that is BECAUSE of our rights in this country, not in spite of them.

What about the off-site parking lot across the street? I'm going to the opener with a group and we were planning on tailgating all day.

xmarkd400x said:

I'm an adult. I can choose to be drunk.

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This is too funny.

It is always amusing to see the defense of public drunkenness, public violence and drinking while intoxicated. It is if there is a constitution right to be a public idiot at a private function and an associated right to bother others and endanger their bodies and their lives.

I also think that this is a step towards barring alcohol at sports events. The key is the public image of sporting teams and owners. Yes, they are willing to trade the alcohol revenues for a better image.

With regard to parking lots not owned by the sporting team, that is an issue for the local police, or not, depending on whether laws are being broken.

Perhaps teams would like a change in image as is happening to Las Vegas (less than half of casino revenues are from gambling). Perhaps they would like to avoid the image of their fans as a bunch or drunks shouting obscentities. Perhaps they would like to avoid putting jails within their stadiums as they once did in Philly.

In the end, we are NOT talking about any RIGHTS here. No one, I repeat NO ONE, has a right to drink at a sports event. We don't even have a RIGHT to drink and smoke at home. The government has chosen NOT to have prohibition of cigarettes and alcohol, primarily because such a prohibition is unenforcable and like the prohibition of marijauna has more negative effects than positive ones. The government would indeed ban cigarettes and most alcohol if they could enforce such bans. The health care savings would be enormous.