'That's a first': Drone sightings caused two delays during Bengals-Ravens game
BALTIMORE — It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a ... drone?
Referee Adrian Hill announced during the second quarter of Thursday night's game between the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals that the game was being paused for an "administrative stoppage." Hill consulted with stadium officials on the Ravens' sideline.
Then players on the field started looking toward the sky.
As the Prime Video broadcast showed, the game was stopped because a drone had entered M&T Bank Stadium air space.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said he thought he'd seen it all, especially having coached his team through a 34-minute delay at Super Bowl 47 in New Orleans when the stadium partially lost power.
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"We saw (the drones) up there," Harbaugh said. "That’s a first."
All Ravens running back Gus Edwards, who scored two touchdowns in Baltimore's 34-20 win, knew was that he wasn't flying the drone.
“What was happening with the drones? ... They kept stopping everything because of the drones," he said.
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At the beginning of the fourth quarter, another stoppage occurred when potentially multiple drones appeared. This time, some players pointed upward. The playing field was once again cleared and the game stopped around 10:50 p.m. ET.
John Simpson, the Ravens' left guard, said it reminded him of the time a game at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, which is covered, was stopped because of a thunderstorm. He said his teammates told him there were multiple drones in the air.
“I couldn’t find them at first,” Simpson told USA TODAY Sports. “I only saw one, but they said there was another one, but I thought it was a plane or (something). It was far (away). I don’t know.
“(Expletive) was insane.”
NFL, Congress have been wary of drones
Ohio authorities arrested a man for flying a drone over Ohio Stadium during an Ohio State versus Maryland college football game in October. And drone security was an offseason priority for the league's governmental affairs department.
“They were not NFL drones?" fullback Patrick Ricard wondered. "They were some random drones?
“What was the problem? Why did they stop the game for it?”
The Department of Homeland Security and Congress fear that drones can be used in nefarious ways to harm the public, according to Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, who chairs the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
On Friday, the league called on Congress to pass legislation that will "mitigate" drone disruptions.
"Without a change in federal law, mass gatherings will remain at risk from malicious and unauthorized drone operations," the NFL said in a statement. "For more than a year, we have been calling for passage of the bipartisan Safeguarding the Homeland from the Threats Posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act, which would empower state and local law enforcement to safely mitigate drones like the two that disrupted the game in Baltimore. It’s time for Congress to act."