It was just after 4 o’clock on Friday afternoon when I heard the sirens. I was driving toward the center of town on South Broad Street, the rain pouring down, when I then saw blue lights in my rear-view mirror and I immediately stopped at the edge of the road, trying to yield to emergency vehicles.

Six or seven police cars, at least five of them from the Tennessee Highway Patrol, screamed past. Mind you, the rain was heavy and to see those cars with flashing lights and sirens blaring go past at about 60 miles an hour on a city street was indeed frightening.

I immediately pushed my radio buttons, anxious to hear if the Al Qaeda had finally managed to get over those ridiculous no-parking humps at the TVA building or that mean, masked men had heisted a bank’s main branch, but could find no bad news. There was also no breaking bulletins or frantic callers.

Two hours later, as I was driving toward home, all traffic at Main and Broad Streets was blocked by police cars. As I sat through the 10-minute delay, it dawned on me that perhaps President Obama was attending the football game between Villanova and Montana, but, no, two buses carrying the players from their hotel to the stadium were the reason. Police still held traffic.

A few minutes later, along came three more buses from the other team’s hotel before the officers wearily got back in their cars and Friday night traffic resumed. I hope I never become a fuddy-duddy, but obviously somebody around here needs to go back to circus school. I’m all about the circus, you need to know that, but I also believe you gotta’ keep it inside the tent.

I hope Chattanooga becomes the permanent home of the NCAA’s title game, and for over 14,000 people to watch two unknown teams from far-away, especially in lousy weather, is a testament to the hard work that many did, but to abuse law-enforcement might and halt traffic on a main thoroughfare so kids on buses can get to the stadium is about the best way to draw universal frowns that I know.

I thought it was great that Jeff Fisher, the head coach of the Tennessee Titans, was among those in the crowd to watch his son play for Montana. But to surround him with several highway patrolmen all night makes you wonder if all the police man-hours is part of the bowl game’s budget or if, instead, that screaming line of Tennessee Highway Patrol cars is financed by those who pay state taxes.

Understand, I hardly want to pour cold water on what is a wonderful spectacle, but somewhere we need to take a closer look at keeping the clowns and elephants inside the three-ring venue. Is a line of highway patrol cars, with sirens blasting and going well over the posted speed limit, really necessary? Not on my excitement meter. I think it could be argued it is dangerous.

I still haven’t sorted out the reason those THP cars were on Broad Street in such a hurry four hours before the game started. In the first place, it is none of my business, but, in a curious way, I have a growing feeling that we need to protect the very ones who protect us.

If somebody thinks we should use sirens and blue lights the same way they use firecrackers during a Pops in the Park concert I have a problem with that. An emergency vehicle, be it a fire engine or ambulance or police car, is a serious thing. Don’t play around with that. No, every driver should immediately yield, hopefully coming to a full stop until traffic resumes.

But I’m not of the same mind about clearing the road for kids from Villanova or Montana. No, those buses can deal with normal traffic, stop lights, and common courtesy like the rest of us. To use police officers at every intersection seems to defeat law enforcement’s purpose and, while I hardly want to be a pre-Christmas Scrooge, we obviously need a better ringmaster for the circus to prosper.

I’m all for sports. I thrill over the resurgence of UTC football and the fact a family can have fun at Finley Stadium is precious to me, but whoever ordered the police to be part of the show doesn’t seem to realize we have a more pressing need in shopping mall parking lots, congested traffic areas and other places better shown on the police blotter.

When the public becomes confused by sirens, wondering whether it means an emergency or the arrival of the clowns, we’ll soon have a big problem. Keep the circus inside the tent.

royexum@aol.com