Following Ohio State Drone Incident, NFL and Congress Express Concerns

The NFL and federal legislatures are concerned about potential stadium security vulnerabilities related to drone flyovers during games. 

The issue was brought to light after a drone was spotted over the Ohio State-Maryland college football game Saturday. Officials quickly suspended the nationally televised contest and pulled the players off the field. The interruption was brief, and authorities tracked down the pilot, detained him and he is now facing multiple criminal charges. 

“We’re concerned about somebody who would use (drones) in a nefarious way and drop a grenade that would do considerable damage and possibly kill individuals,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who chairs the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, according to NBC News. 

Drone flyovers at stadiums aren't new, but stadiums are relatively defenseless should a small craft be weaponized, as has recently been see in Ukraine. 

Cathy Lanier, the NFL’s chief of security, told NBC News that since 2018, when the FBI and DHS were granted drone mitigation authority, there have been 121,000 requests for them to send teams to stadiums and other venues. “They’ve been able to approve 77,” she said.

The limited takedown authority is set to expire Nov. 17 along with the current congressional spending bill. Peters and other lawmakers, backed by a coalition of sports leagues, including the NFL, NCAA, MLB and NASCAR, are pushing legislation that would give state and local law enforcement agencies the authority to bring down rogue drones.

FBI director Christopher Wray has endorsed the concept, saying that in 2022, the FBI investigated multiple instances of people trying to weaponize small drones. 

Lanier said that while federal law prohibits drones from flying over major sporting events, but there are few ways to stop it from happening. 

“They enter that restricted airspace, they are violating the law,” she said. “All we’re asking for is the ability to take control of that drone and move it out of our airspace.”

Lanier said there were around 2,500 drone incursions over NFL stadiums last season, up from 1,300 the year before. 

“We have 70,000 people in these stadiums and arenas,” Lanier said. “If you introduce panic to that scenario, then it becomes a lot more difficult to manage. And then you have people that can be injured. So we don’t want anybody introducing anything that causes panic in the stadium.”