How safe are Michigan football games?
I know there will be people who will think this is pretty reactionary to the Boston Marathon. Those events did prompt me to post this, but I've always thought that this topic should get some conversation.
So how safe are Michigan football games?
We all know that on any given Saturday, our favorite stadium holds more people than any other facility in the country. It's announced every gameday. Now, I'm not one to get shaky before going to the mall. I think that parents who see school shootings have reason to be concerned, but that it's hugely unlikely anything would happen to their local school. But Michigan Stadium is different. Large crowds accumulate all the time, but ours are scheduled and frequent and really, really large.
As evidence that something could happen, I give a specific example. My uncle has season tickets to Michigan football games. He also has Asberger's. He is a very smart, kind person, but also prone to erratic and very offputting behavior. Like the time he smuggled a sack of potatoes into Michigan Stadium to taunt Notre Dame fans. He shouted obsenities about the potato famine for the duration of the game. The ticket scanner wouldn't have let him in with a sack of potatoes. No problem. He just pushed them through the wrought iron fence and collected them afterwards. You can connect the dots with where I am going.
So I pose this, is it ridiculous and inflammatory to have some concern about going to football games? Will something happen? Unlikely. But could it? I guess by begging the question, I am asking for some dialogue on the subject. Should security by heightened at Michigan Stadium, not as a knee jerk reaction to current events, but as an admittance that the world is offering many more risks that it has in the past? Or is this just increased awareness of a very real but probably minimal threat?
EDIT: After going 0-5 on the the voting, I vowed not to look at this thread. I suppose I'll just throw on my tinfoil hat and take my lumps...