UVA: All Signs and Banners Banned at Sporting Events

It was innocent enough. Filled with red hearts and crudely drawn, it simply said, "We Love Our New Ball Coach".

Since NBC was televising the game, the network naturally picked up on the "NBC" in New Ball Coach, and that was all it needed to make the airwaves.

Whether it is a sign like that one or others, signs of every kind and nature have always been part of the game. They praise the players, belittle the opponent, show support for the team and energize the fans. Some are funny, and others serious. They are a natural fixture of the basic culture of any athletic event.

But if you happen to have gone to the University of Virginia's football season opener at Scott Stadium against Southern Cal, or Saturday's contest with Richmond, you would have found no signs, no banners, no flags.

And it's not because fans didn't want to bring them. It's now a new university policy that all signs, banners and flags are banned at all athletic events.

Granted, Virginia is not alone. Virginia Tech and James Madison also have somewhat similar policies and theirs have been in effect for several years. At other universities and colleges around the state, it's still fine to have them.

Virginia always had a policy permitting the removal of signs that had derogatory comments or profanity, or ones that blocked another's view. But the new policy now covers all signs, even the positive ones.

And that's sad. As one fan said to me the other day when she heard of the policy, "It sort of makes things bland when we can't express our feelings."

And if you think about it, signs have been with us since our school days. When the Stuarts Draft High School football team ran through a banner held by the cheerleaders as they entered the field in their season opener against Broadway three weeks ago, they were doing something that's gone on for decades.

And in high school gyms, signs and banners touting the members of basketball or volleyball teams usually decorate the wall. Others have been held by cheerleaders. There are colorful signs, plain signs -- signs and banners everywhere. I've seen imaginative signs, such as Styrofoam cups stuck in wire fences spelling out slogans, and not so imaginative ones, too.

At Virginia, what might have sparked the banning of all signs, banners and flags may have been a Scott Stadium sign held by a student last year that expressed the desire to remove head football coach Al Groh.

This year, students were notified by e-mail of the new policy. And for many, it hasn't gone over very well.

"There have been some folks who necessarily don't agree with the policy," said U.Va. associate director of athletics for public relations Rich Murray. "Its intent is to promote and support sportsmanship and create a positive game-day environment for all fans."

Some who oppose the ban point to free speech first amendment rights. And while the policy deals with signs, banners and flags, Murray wouldn't comment on slogans on T-shirts, which at times have been even more raucous. That remains a gray area.

Personally, I think trying to regulate tasteful signs, banners and flags is the first move in stepping on freedoms outlined in the first amendment. And that's now come to a university built by one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson. I wonder what he would have said if he were around today?

Don't get me wrong. There's no place for signs of profanity. But tasteful signs, banners and flags? You really begin to wonder if some of the guarantees of the first amendment aren't being trampled on.

If signs at athletic events are taboo, what about slogans on T-shirts? If that goes, will freedom of vocal expression be next?