Nudity at a football game?! Actually, it happens all the time

Old guy alert: I hate seeing topless people at football games.

There is a tempest surrounding the attendance of two topless women at the recent Utah-Southern Utah football game last Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.

Wearing body paint, the two young females (under the age of 25) were allowed to enter the stadium and cheer for a time before being asked by a security officer to put shirts on. The women complied and there was no further incident.

In fact, it may have gone completely unnoticed, except another woman (I'll leave her name out for now) complained to authorities and to the media that her young children were being corrupted by witnessing the two half-dressed women.

The lady's complaints have touched off a firestorm.

I did a simple search for "topless women at Utah football game" and Google offered me 91 stories about the event.

Said the woman: "Our first reaction is to create like a wall or shield in front of our children so they can’t see it,” said the YouTube personality and mother of two. “There’s a police officer standing there and I think ‘There’s no way he’s gonna let them in.’ And they just walked right past him.”

In an interview with our news partners, ABC4, the woman said this was her first time taking her son and daughter to a Utes football game. “I was shocked waiting for someone to stop them and no one did.”

Women's rights organizations are up in arms about the whole deal, especially when the University of Utah announced it would investigate the incident and possibly bring criminal charges against the two topless women. The U also stated that if the women were students at the school, they may face additional sanctions like suspensions or fines.

For the record, it is illegal to go out in public (for females) in the state of Utah without a shirt on, although the statute never does address body paint as a possible alternative.

Believe it or not, I'm actually on the side of the women's rights organizations this time. Well, sort of.

Years ago I attended a BYU football game and I was doing some radio interviews before the contest. Two frat brothers had driven all the way from Florida to go to the game (the Cougars were playing Florida State).

The enthusiastic young men had painted Florida State colors and logos on their chests and had planned on entering the stadium shirtless. But when they got to the gate, the security guard told them they'd have to put shirts on before entering.

"We don't do the shirtless thing here," he said.

So here's my deal. I don't like the shirtless thing either. I don't think those women should have been allowed in the Utah game shirtless. But I also don't think any guys should be allowed to go to games without shirts on either.

Paint your face. Paint your arms. Buy a nice team shirt or jacket. But leave it on. Please.

When you go shirtless, it tells me you don't have a decent team jersey to wear.

I sure as heck don't want to see you without a shirt unless we're at the beach.

Guys, girls: no shoes, no shirt, no ballgame.