NEW ORLEANS — When it comes to Super Bowl parades, we don’t usually see one until a team actually wins the game, but in New Orleans, they do things differently and that’s a big reason why the city decided to hold a parade the day BEFORE the Super Bowl.
No one knows how to throw a parade like New Orleans, which makes sense, because this city has been holding them during Mardi Gras for nearly 200 years. The city decided to channel some of that Mardi Gras magic this year with the NFL’s first-ever Super Bowl parade, and it was a wild experience.
If you go to a parade in New Orleans, there’s going to be debauchery, there’s going to be fun, there’s going to be drinking and there’s going to be beads. Lots of beads. And the Super Bowl parade had all of that on Saturday: There were 18 floats, multiple marching bands and thousands of beads (Have I mentioned there were beads?)
The grand marshal of the parade was billionaire Todd Graves, who you may or may not know better as the founder of Raising Cane’s. Graves was on one of the first floats out of the chute, and from there, the party was on in the French Quarter.
The Budweiser Clydesdales made an appearance and I found out a fun fact while they were there: Someone has to follow them in a golf cart and clean up their mess.
I hope there’s some free beer involved with that job.
I’m not going to rank all the floats, but if I did, I’d probably give the award for best float to Entergy, who had a three-car train going during the parade.
Of course, you can’t have a Mardi Gras parade without some actual Mardi Gras-themed floats, and there were plenty of those during the two-hour event.
If you visit New Orleans, one thing you’ll almost always see is a riverboat, which means you can’t have a parade in the city without one of those.
One thing the city of New Orleans made sure to point out to EVERY SINGLE visitor this week is that the city is hosting its record-tying 11th Super Bowl.
The city is so proud of that fact that the Super Bowl host committee made it the main theme of their float.
There were no Chiefs or Eagles players at the parade, because they have a game to worry about on Sunday, but KC Wolf did show up on a Chiefs’ float that featured a giant statue of Patrick Mahomes.
The Eagles also had quite the contingent on their parade float.
When you throw a parade like this, you have to save the best for last, and of course, that’s what the organizers did there. One of the final floats was the CBS Sports/Paramount+ float, which was one of my favorites and I’m not just saying that because I work for them. Seriously. Look how cool this float is.
There’s a reason that New Orleans has hosted a record-tying 11 Super Bowls, and that’s because this city knows how to throw a party. This is the 12th Super Bowl week I’ve covered for CBS Sports and this was the most electrifying public event that I can remember.
When the NFL and New Orleans announced in October that there would be a Super Bowl parade the day before the game, part of me thought it might be a dud, but instead, everyone involved hit a home run. People were lined up in the streets and it was easily the most festive atmosphere I’ve seen at a Super Bowl.
There are a lot of people who won’t be attending the game, but they still visit the Super Bowl city because they want to be part of the magic of Super Bowl week, and this event definitely helped with that.
If you need me, I’ll be on Canal Street buying a suitcase, because that’s the only way I’ll be able to get all these beads home that I got during the parade. And if my wife is reading, don’t worry, I didn’t have to show anything to get them.
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Author: John Breech
February 8, 2025 | 4:10 pm
