NEW ORLEANS — Cops on Bourbon Street aren’t There to bust the drunken disorderlies. They’re there to protect them, along with city police, state police and the Army National Guard.
As a river of people flows through the French Quarter, Eagles fans outnumber Chiefs fans ahead of Super Bowl LIX. Shouts of “Go Birds!” and the obligatory “E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!” chants are all over. But Kansas City is well represented, too.
The sheer size of the event necessitates massive security, particularly in light of the domestic terrorist attack here on Jan. 1.
At 3:15 a.m. on Jan. 1, hours before the Sugar Bowl was scheduled to be played, a Texas man plowed a van into a packed crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 15 people and injuring 57 more. Lansdale Catholic and Princeton graduate Ryan Quigley, a star running back in high school and college, suffered multiple injuries.
Tiger Bech, his friend, coworker and former Princeton teammate, was killed.
The Eagles gifted Super Bowl tickets to Quigley, who is still undergoing physical therapy. He was initially hesitant to return to the site of the tragedy, but decided to do it in honor of Bech.
“I wanted to come back to New Orleans to rewrite this story and leave New Orleans on a positive note,” said Quigley, who flew down here on Friday.
The National Guard has been a staple on Bourbon Street, even before the attack.
Yaya Rodriguez, 23, a student of anthropological archeology, grew up in New Orleans and has tended bar in the French Quarter since she was a teenager. While some folks in the hospitality industry get tired of rowdy tourists, she doesn’t mind them.
Rodriguez is a type of person you couldn’t meet anywhere else. She worships the sun, and she claims to have a sixth sense.
“I was born with it. Everybody is,” she said. “You know when you’re young and kids have imaginary friends? Adults will say, ‘There’s no one there? There’s no one in the closet.’ But there is. Kids see things adults don’t, because adults block it out. A child develops calcification of the pineal gland, and that blocks out these superhuman abilities. But my mom is into this stuff too, so she helped me not to block it out.
“This is New Orleans, Louisiana, the origin of slavery in the United States at the mouth of the Mississippi River. This is the heart of the cultures that came from Africa and other places, right here. Black, Italian, Spanish, whatever you are, a lot of us here share the same ancestors, and we’ve always had a spirituality, which was further necessitated by oppression.
“That’s where all the paganism and voodoo and all these things around here come from. That’s why this place is the way it is.”
Carlos and Lisa Luna are here to enjoy football and root for the Eagles.
They’re retired Air Force and have had Eagles season tickets since 2023, when they were no longer required to travel for work. Lisa is from Pottsville, and her husband hails from Miami. They live in the Florida panhandle, around Destin’s white-sand beaches. They drove a few hours to get here.
“We go to as many games as we can,” Lisa said. “A lot of my family still lives up in the Philadelphia area, so we visit and go to games. We went to Brazil at the beginning of the season.”
Carlos used to be a Dolphins fan, but that changed 20 years ago.
“Dan Marino retired in 2000, and then I met her — and I love Yuengling beer — so it worked out great,” he said.
“He married into it and converted,” Lisa said.
The couple went to the Super Bowl two years ago in Arizona, saying it was a blast except for the Eagles losing. Plus, they couldn’t “pregame” the way they’re accustomed to.
“It’s not so nice when you can’t tailgate,” Carlos said. “Most people don’t understand how we tailgate in Philly, so they don’t understand how repressive it isn’t when you can’t.”
There have been no signs of repression in NOLA this week. Just plenty of pregame celebration.
Source: Berkshire mont