Our frustration and disdain for the NFL and their ridiculous policies has been well documented on this tailgating blog for years. A policy change coming from the NFL regarding the size and opacity of bags fans can carry inside NFL stadiums is the most recent display of idiocy and invasion of privacy to date.
NFL.com: NFL’s new bag policy to improve public safety at games
Sportsrageous.com: Female fans enraged at NFL’s bag policy
The NFL in it’s infinite genius has decided to implement a ban on all purses, diaper bags and backpacks and also limits the size and type of bags that may be brought into stadiums. Citing the recent Boston Marathon bombings as a major catalyst to bringing this new policy to be, bags now must meet certain size requirements and bags on the high end of the approved size requirement must be clear plastic. Here are the parameters:
- Bags that are clear plastic, vinyl or PVC and do not exceed 12” x 6” x 12.”
- One-gallon clear plastic freezer bag (Ziploc bag or similar).
- Small clutch bags, approximately the size of a hand, with or without a handle or strap can be taken into the stadium with one of the clear plastic bags.
- An exception will be made for medically necessary items after proper inspection at a gate designated for this purpose.
Here are examples of what types of bags and what sizes are now approved and allowed in past security check points.
Anyone else catch that the larger bags that must be clear, the NFL is trotting out their version of the bag that will conveniently have the NFL Shield on it? Of course, your favorite NFL franchise’s logo will also be available for purchase. And all for less than $12. Way to create a market for a brand new officially licensed NFL product.

Aside from the blatantly obvious attempt to sell more licensed crap probably made in China, this new policy completely disregards and dismisses the growing and formidable female fan base. Veteran NFL fans can tell you, the majority of the people that bring in bags to an NFL game are women. And the majority of those bags are purses that contain God knows what. The point here is many of those purses contain private items that do not need to be displayed to the world. Most notably, tampons and and other feminine hygiene products. Honestly, it really is nobody’s business that it is your time of the month but the NFL is now making it everyone’s business within 100 feet.
Way to go NFL. Nothing like embarrassing your female fans and invading their privacy just because the game falls on that special week for her. And here is another potential problem that NFL may have overlooked. This bag ban by the NFL may very well increase the number of car burglaries in the parking lots.
With this new policy, the NFL is encouraging female fans to leave their purses at home.
Seriously? You think women will leave their purses at home? They very well may not take them into the stadium because of this new policy but they certainly will not leave their purses at home. They will just leave them in the car and hopefully lock it up in the trunk or hide it under the seat to decrease that crime of opportunity when an unscrupulous person walks by and sees a purse sitting on the floorboard in plain sight. But we all know after tailgating for a few hours and in the rush to make it inside before kick-off, some women will forget to hide their purse and thus they are welcoming a smash and grab robbery through a car window. So in order to solve one problem of “fan security”, the NFL just created another one, car burglaries.
Now that the NFL has changed the rules of bringing in outside items into the stadium, it is time for you the tailgater to adapt. Maybe you would bring in some alcohol in a backpack that had a compartment that security would overlook. It was last year that the NFL implemented the metal detector wands policy and moved away from a physical pat down by rented security personnel usually wearing yellow windbreakers. Because of this, this may be the perfect time to start bringing in those items on your person and not in exterior bags.
For the ladies and if it happens to be that time of the month and you don’t want to advertise to everyone, wear long pants and stuff some tampons in your socks while you go through security. If you want to smuggle your booze into the stadium, we have been touting for years the Freedom Flask and the Booze Belly as inexpensive and effective ways to get liquor into the stadium to avoid paying the high concession stand prices inside.
It’s doubtful that NFL fans and season ticket holders will revolt over this new bag policy and the refuse to go to the games in person. It’s doubtful the stadiums will be half empty and that games will be blacked out in local markets at a record rate. NFL fans will grin and bear it it seems and just go along with the policy. But just because this new policy is going into effect for 2013 doesn’t mean you can not take your own precautions. Now is the time to plan on how you will get items into the stadium that otherwise don’t need to be seen in an officially NFL licensed clear bag of approved size dimensions.