Starting this week, Florida has a new law stiffening penalties for attention-grabbers who sprint across sports fields – often in various stages of undress. One well-known streaker says it just won’t work.
“I think that’s like a scare tactic,” said Instagram model and influencer Kelly Kay, who jumped from the stands to run across the Hard Rock Stadium field in Miami Gardens during the Super Bowl in 2020, referring to the new law increasing fines on offenders and allowing authorities to seize their assets. It took effect Sunday.
“To tell people, ‘Not only are you going to get in trouble for this and go to jail, they’ll get a charge, we’re going to take your money,’” Kay of Knoxville, Tennessee, said in an interview. “But if it was me and that law was in effect when I ran on the field, I would still do it because of the long-term effect.”
Kay, then 27, was tackled by security quickly near the end zone. She was arrested and hit with a trespassing charge that eventually was dropped. Since then, she has soared to 1 million Instagram followers. (She told The New York Times she decided not to do it nude because she knew children would be watching.)
The anti-streaking measure, “Interference With Sporting or Entertainment Events,” sponsored by Rep. Taylor Yarkosky, R-Montverde, received nearly unanimous support in both legislative chambers earlier this year, passing 109-3 in the House and 39-0 in the Senate. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law in June.
Yarkosky, elected to the...
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