The Eagles took home their trophy on Valentine’s Day and shared it with the city at the annual Super Bowl parade celebrated by the team who wins it. The parade started at Lincoln Financial Field, followed by Broad Street, and down Benjamin Franklin Parkway, leading to the finish at the Philadelphia Art Museum. The streets were lined with Eagles fans wearing their kelly and midnight green jerseys and memorabilia.
It’s estimated that over one million people took to the streets of Philadelphia to watch the parade. Some dedicated fans camped out overnight for the best view while others got there as quick as they could to secure a spot. Every space was filled to say the least, with a few crazy fans climbing trees and sitting on the roofs of buildings.
We woke up at 5 am to arrive at the school at 5:15 to hit the road. We made a pit stop at the famous Wawa on the way to the Lansdale train station. Once we arrived there, we already saw cop cars and a long line of people. We parked the ole Jeep in the Septa parking garage for $4. The line was pretty long, but it was nothing terrible. We waited about an hour to board the train, and then we were off to Philadelphia. The train ride was about 45 minutes because they didn’t make any stops after Lansdale. The train started with Eagles chants from a passionate fan at eight in the morning.
When we arrived to the city, the streets were starting to fill up, with music blasting and people dancing. Multiple streets were closed for the event which created a unique opportunity for citizens to walk on them. After a little while, the music stopped and they began to show a rerun of Super Bowl 59. There were a few giant screens synced up so people all over the city could watch the game together and listen to it wherever they were. The game was perfectly queued up to end when the parade would start, which kept many fans busy and entertained.
Due to the increased population in Philadelphia for the event, roads, stores, and restaurants were closed and blocked off in order to prevent over congestion. One of the only establishments open near Broad St. was the local “Food Mart” where we purchased snacks. The market had a paper sign taped to the door stating, “only 30 customers in the store at a time.” There was a line out the door and Drew and a T-shirt vendor waited in line together, where we struck up conversation…
“I’m expecting to make around $2000 dollars by the end of the day,” said the t-shirt vendor who we did not receive a name from. Large events like these bring out many vendors such as this gentleman looking to “hustle” in his words. From shirts, to hats, to flags, many of these vendors sold exotic memorabilia that you cannot find online. There were also different vendors taking advantage of the lack of stores open, and selling things such as food and water; however they were selling the items for an increased price.
Caleb’s brother is a computer science student at Drexel University, where we made plans to meet up with him before the parade began. However, in our attempts to rendezvous with him, the city’s large crowd and multiple road closures made it impossible.
One of our biggest concerns of the day was using the bathroom. We heard horror stories of the lines that the porta-johns had, with no toilet paper. We created a rule amongst ourselves that whenever we saw an empty bathroom we’d take advantage of it. For the majority of the day the lines weren’t too bad, however when the parade was passing by us and the herd followed they filled up quickly.
We stationed ourselves by the end of the parade by the art museum and gradually the crowd around us grew by the thousands. In order to move at all through the crowd you had to get into a slow moving line, filled with hundreds of Eagles fans. We saw the likes of Jalen Hurts, Jordan Mailata, Reed Blankenship, and many more that we couldn’t put a name to. While in the crowd of fans we met some pretty interesting people from all walks of life, gathered to celebrate their favorite team.
“Everyone in the city coming together today, for the love of the birds, baby,” said avid Eagles fan and lifetime Philadelphia resident Lamar. Lamar and his friends stood by us in the crowd as we watched the players go by and showed us great hospitality.
After the parade passed, we began the walk back to the train station hoping to get on the first one back to Lansdale. It was a little chaotic trying to figure out which line went to each station. We ended up making a mistake and getting in the wrong line for about 15 minutes until we realized. That proved pivotal as the Lansdale line grew tremendously and was now crazy long. We got in the back of it hoping it’d move fast… it’s safe to say it didn’t.
We were able to get in line relatively quickly following the conclusion of the parade, we waited for nearly an hour and only traveled about 100 feet. When a Philadelphia diehard fan, Dan, offered to pay us 100 dollars to cut us in line. We agreed and ended up waiting another 2 hours in line with him, well Septa was figuring out the overcrowded situation. The frustration in the streets grew the longer people waited for their train, when commuters quickly blared out, a harshly worded chant, right outside the train station.
After hours of waiting for the train, we boarded the train to Lansdale. A lot of angry people waited so long and a lot of belligerent fans. We got a spot in the front of the train next to some very loud and obnoxious people. It was a lot longer of a ride because it makes all the stops on the way home. So it was close to an hour. We made it to Lansdale and drove our way home.
