To further increase security, fans will be patted down before entering
stadiums for all pro football games this season -- beginning with the
Cowboys' preseason game Saturday at Texas Stadium.

While many Cowboys fans may be unfamiliar with pat-downs before games,
the procedures have been used before at National Football League
stadiums, including at Super Bowls since 2002 and at last year's playoff
games.

Cowboys fans are asked to bring patience with them to the next two
preseason games -- and to the regular-season games as well.

"This new requirement is not a result of any specific threat
information," NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said in a statement. "It
is in recognition of the significant additional security that
'pat-downs' offer, as well as the favorable experience that our clubs
and fans have had using 'pat-downs' as part of a comprehensive stadium
security plan."

The NFL sent pat-down guidelines to teams after a recent league meeting.
It is up to each club and stadium to implement them, NFL spokesman Greg
Aiello said.

Cowboys and Texas Stadium officials declined to discuss most of the
details of the pat-down procedure.

"Certain elements of any security procedure are things we don't share
publicly," Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple said.

Fans will be separated by sex at entry gates and will be screened by
hired security officers of the same sex. Everyone entering the stadium
will be screened.

The policy is leaguewide for the regular season, but the Cowboys are
getting an early start.

"Our organization decided that since we're going to do it for the
regular season, we'd also do it for the preseason games at Texas
Stadium," Dalrymple said.

Irving police and stadium staff will also be posted at the gates, said
Bruce Hardy, general manager of Texas Stadium.

As has become normal procedure at Cowboys games, fans will be screened
with hand magnetometers, Hardy said.

"Our fans have been going great through security since we started after
9-11," he said. "We have fantastic fans, and they understand."

The increased security procedures come as the federal Homeland Security
Department has determined that the nation's largest sporting events no
longer qualify as high-level "national special security events."

Examples of such events were President Bush's inauguration and President
Reagan's funeral.

"Even the Super Bowl in the last two years was not an NSSE," Homeland
Security spokeswoman Valerie Smith said.

The last Super Bowl was a "level one" event, which garners a ton of
federal surveillance, including from the Secret Service.

And, according to Federal Aviation Administration officials, flight
restrictions above and around large sporting events still apply.

Security pat-downs became controversial last year when the
Transportation Security Administration started torso pat-downs of
passengers at airports after a 9-11 Commission recommendation and the
bombing of two Russian passenger jets. The terrorists were believed to
be two Chechen women who concealed explosives on their bodies.

Air travelers were subject to searches for explosives hidden around
their genitals, buttocks and breasts.

The pat-downs resulted in a barrage of complaints and criticism, mostly
from women who said they were being fondled.

Airport pat-downs have been modified several times since, and the
complaints have decreased, TSA officials said.

NFL officials say they are not worried that the expanded use of
pat-downs will make fans feel uncomfortable.

Where they have been previously used, pat-downs have been generally
accepted.

(c)Associated Press