ESPN reports that the NFL is cracking down on fan misconduct in an odd, odd, odd manner. The game plan (sorry) is to require fans that are ejected from a game for any reason to have to take a four-hour online course before they’re allowed back in the stadium. Of, and the courses aren’t free — depending upon the city/team, they can cost as much as $100.
And then there’s the obvious question about how the league intends to keep tabs on those that have been kicked out so that they don’t go to a game in the future:
Skeptics might wonder how teams are going to keep track of ejected fans from week to week. Ray DiNunzio, the NFL’s director of strategic security, told ESPN the monitoring will vary by team but could at some point involve facial recognition technology.
Facial recognition technology? And, more to the point, facial recognition technology to help monitor crowds of 70,000? So, yes, Big Brother is watching, and his name is Roger Goodell.