Super Bowl Training: How Security Personnel Prep for the Big Game

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Ben Mueller
Ben Mueller
01/28/2014

February’s pigskin finale is fast approaching, and while you’re ranting and raving over the odds, the Seahawks and the Broncos aren’t the only ones facing a big performance ahead of them. Security is ramping up all around MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, and the Big Apple to ensure that the festivities go off without a hitch. All that extra preparation means extensive training of personnel, so that everyone’s up to speed on protocol and procedures.

Here are seven ways the NFL and local authorities are preparing for game day:

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1. About 4,000 security personnel will be working in the stadium for the February 2nd game.

Three-fourths of the security personnel are from the NFL, which should make for a hilarious West Side Story reenactment between the NFL and the local authorities.

2. The New Jersey State Police has run scenario training on land, sea, and in air.

NJSP Lieutenant Colonel Edward Cetnar told TWC news, "Our SWAT team, our divers, our heavy rescue personnel in coordination with our aviation and our Marine division has done extensive training over the last couples of months on things in scenario-based training that we may be, have to confront." Killer whales and sharknadoes, beware.

3. Organizers have prepared and trained for nearly any scenario—from power outages to riots.

State police Col. Rick Fuentes said organizers are prepared for everything from a power outage—just like last year’s Super Bowl—to a winter storm. Hundreds of plows and sanders will be at the ready, although requests to bring along our unfinished coffee table for pseudo-upscale tailgating have been ignored.

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4. Security planning began in 2010 and federal workers have planned all year.

Just after MetLife Stadium was awarded the big game, training began. That’s a productive timeline over the past three years of personal growth, improvement, and development—in other words, the inverse of Justin Bieber.

5. Police have "reviewed the tapes" on the past three Super Bowls to see what went right.

Fuentes said, "We’ve looked very closely at those Super Bowls… For selfish reasons, we’ve stolen absolutely everything that’s gone right but it’s always been with an eye looking toward exactly what we can improve on." It’s just like studying your team’s best plays of the past year, only not in a sweaty locker room with a dusty projector from the ‘50s.

6. Security training for "Super Bowl Boulevard,"the 13-block street fair on Broadway in Manhattan, has been modeled after the NYE celebration in Times Square and other high-profile events.

So New Yorkers can safely party in the streets like it’s 1999.

Special thanks to Terence Corcoran and his coverage of the Super Bowl 2014 security press conference.


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