New Orleans (AFP) – Heavy security blanketed New Orleans Thursday as college football’s Sugar Bowl went off without a hitch, one day after a heinous truck-ramming attack killed 14 people in the city’s famed nightlife district. While thousands of rival fans of the University of Georgia and University of Notre Dame converged on the Caesars Superdome stadium for the much-hyped matchup, the New Year’s tragedy put a discernable damper on the event.
Originally set for New Year’s Day, the Sugar Bowl was postponed to January 2, sending many ticket holders scrambling to change their flights and extend hotel stays. Darleesia White, a 36-year-old teacher from Memphis, Tennessee, has been coming to the Sugar Bowl since 2018, but confirmed Thursday’s vibe felt different. “It’s almost like everyone’s afraid to be too excited due to what happened already,” White, clad in Georgia Bulldogs gear, told AFP. “A lot of people have left.”
Despite the concerns, she insisted she felt safe as she waited to go through security into the stadium but added: “It almost feels dark. The energy is definitely dry this year.” Inside, a moment of silence was held for the victims of the attack along Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, a famous hub of nightlife in New Orleans.
– Mood ‘substantially subdued’ – New Year revelers were mowed down on Wednesday when a US army veteran loyal to the Islamic State jihadist group drove a pickup truck at high speed into a crowd. After the game, which Notre Dame won 23-10, its coach Marcus Freeman sent condolences “to all those that were affected in New Orleans and to the city of New Orleans.” Quarterback Riley Leonard said he was praying for the victims but also that “for all these Notre Dame fans to show up anyway, man it means the world to us.”
Local entrepreneurs tried to boost the mood ahead of the game, selling Jell-O shots from coolers on the sidewalk. But Teddy Amar, a restaurant owner who has for years served beer, bloody marys, and other drinks a stone’s throw from the stadium, described Thursday’s crowd as “substantially subdued.”
– ‘Spirit of New Orleans’ – The game went off without incident, as police and security officials were deployed en masse, with streets near the Superdome closed to traffic. Their presence was something of a major test ahead of American football’s biggest yearly event, the NFL championship Super Bowl, scheduled for February 9 in the Superdome. SWAT teams surveilled the scene, including heavily armed forces inside a Louisiana state armored tactical response vehicle positioned outside the Superdome, a landmark of the New Orleans skyline.
Despite the postponement, more than 80 percent of seats in the sold-out game were filled. US President Joe Biden appeared in a video message broadcast on ESPN shortly before kickoff, expressing gratitude to “brave first responders who raced to save lives” at the scene of the attack. “I’m glad the game is back on for today,” Biden said. “But I’m not surprised, because the spirit of New Orleans can never be kept down. That’s also true of the spirit of America.”
For Orlando Pereira, 47, the game and the security issues brought mixed emotions. His son is a member of the Notre Dame marching band and was set to perform at the Sugar Bowl, but he ended up bailing the night before. “His mom was a little concerned,” said Pereira, a logistics expert in Los Angeles, and their son “just didn’t feel comfortable staying here.”
But Alex Zepeda, on his first trip to New Orleans, said that while he and his party were “very upset” by Wednesday’s attack, he was comfortable with the security level. Would the tragedy ruin the game-day spirit of rivalry? Not in the slightest, the 53-year-old said. “Once you go past these gates right here…Again, it’s a tragedy, but from the standpoint of competition, it’s going to be very high,” he said.
© 2024 AFP
