Foiling the Frisbee Menace 1

Old Dominion University is a local university which started as the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary.

A few years ago, they started a football team, which has done reasonably well, if you care about such stuff. It plays at Foreman Field, a small stadium that seats about 20,000, though they are starting to have arena dreams.

Now they are going big time.

But Saturday, when ODU hosts Howard in its home opener, that policy is changing. Bags will be searched and banned items such as Frisbees, alcoholic drinks and cowbells must be pitched into nearby trash cans.

Are they doing this because there is any demonstrated threat to college football games, other than fistfights between drunken tailgaters?

No.

They are doing this because searching people is the Next Big Thing, enabled by two crackpots leaving backpacks on city streets.

All the cool teams are doing it.

Mike Fryling, assistant general manager for Global Spectrum, the company that handles game-day operations for ODU football, said bags were inspected in 2009, the school’s first season. ODU had a more relaxed attitude the past three years.

He said that’s changing in large part because other colleges have beefed up security at athletic events.

“It’s a national trend,” he said.

And you thought that The Naked City was just a movie.

Such is life in the home of the brave.