Milton Ahlerich and NFL Security: Goal-Line Stand

Anything can happen at a football game. But Milton Ahlerich, the NFL's VP of security, has sworn to make it safe for players and fans alike.

Ahlerich came to the NFL from the orderly FBI environment, and during the course of a 25-year career, worked his way up from an entry-level special agent eventually into the executive ranks, where he worked in counterintelligence and on violent and white-collar crime. Persuasion and finesse are not skills one is typically taught at the FBI, where rules are rules and the chain of command is rarely questioned, but Ahlerich learned a lot about hands-on diplomacy while serving as the chief of congressional and public affairs for the bureau and eventually heading up the Connecticut field office.

Because of his experience in public affairs, he knew that managing security for an entertainment organization as high profile as the NFL would take equal parts security and PR. "People think we put edicts out to cities and teams saying, 'Do this or you'll be fined or thrown out of the league,'" Ahlerich says. "But that's really not the way it works. We have to persuade. And we have to do a lot of askingnot telling."

Ahlerich also knew that his powers of communication would be tested while marketing security at the NFL because, while its security department acts as a consultant to each team, owners bear ultimate responsibility for managing security at the stadium level. The owners hire their own security personnel and ultimately decide how much security they will implement at their facilities.

The league assigns a security representative to each teama contractor who is usually a former senior law enforcement officer. That individual reports to Ahlerich and works out in the field offering advice to the team and disseminating the security best practices that the league has established. It's a carefully balanced relationship that allows the owners to drive decisions as they see fit, while Ahlerich's security team plays the role of congenial backseat driver, gently but consistently reinforcing the standards that the league has set and addressing oversights when needed.Who's Calling the Plays?The league's security best practices cover everything from bag checks for the players and fans, to alcohol sales, staffing levels, surveillance, ejection procedures, perimeter security and prescreening of a stadium prior to an event.

One best practice approach came directly out of the NFL's experience in the days following September 11th, an event that raised the specter of terrorists attacking places like football stadiums where large groups of people gather. Within two hours of the Twin Towers coming down, Ahlerich was talking to the league's senior officials to decide whether security could be ramped up fast enough for the following weekend's games.