The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs have arrived in New Orleans for Super Bowl week.
The teams landed on Sunday afternoon to sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s, just a week before their game on February 9. Players and staff stepped off the planes and onto moveable staircases, heading to waiting buses on the tarmac.
They quickly made their way to downtown hotels in convoys. Most of the Eagles were dressed in black sweatsuits with the “Super Bowl LIX” logo on the chest, while Chiefs coach Andy Reid wore a blue suit with a red tie.
One of the pilots on the Eagles’ plane showed a green-and-white flag from the window that read, “Geaux Birds,” a play on the way French words and many names in Louisiana end with “eaux.”
This year’s Super Bowl comes a month after a terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter on January 1. A man drove a truck onto the sidewalk, killing 14 people before being shot by police. Security was tight at the airport when the teams arrived. Media were kept behind barricades about 50 yards from the players and staff, and no interviews were allowed.
Security barriers can also be seen on Bourbon Street near a memorial for the victims of the January 1 attack.
The Eagles (17-3) made it to the Super Bowl by defeating the Washington Commanders 55-23 in the NFC Championship. The Chiefs (17-2) are looking to be the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls after beating the Buffalo Bills 32-29 in the AFC Championship.
The arrivals marked the start of a week of events leading up to New Orleans’ first Super Bowl since 2013.
“This is the first day of the culmination of eight years of planning,” said Jay Cicero, president of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and the New Orleans Super Bowl Host Committee. He mentioned how it’s been eight years since the city won the bid to host this year’s game.
“It’s a little surreal that the teams are arriving,” Cicero said. “We’re excited that this is happening. It’s time to get going.”
Cicero, who was at the airport when the teams arrived, shared that a study from the University of New Orleans found the 2013 Super Bowl brought in about $480 million in spending to the area.
“We’re certainly expecting more than that this time around,” he said.
More than 6,000 media credentials have been issued for the Super Bowl, an increase from the 5,200 given out for the 2013 game, and double the number from the 1997 Super Bowl in New Orleans.
