Since the attack on January 1, 2025, the authorities in New Orleans have been alerted. Now the 59th Super Bowl takes place in the big city in Lousiana.
The Bourbon Street cannot be recognized. The entrance to the narrow street in the famous French Quarter of New Orleans is blocked by a huge construction vehicle. Soldiers in camouflage uniform, rifle in the attack, control visitors.
To the left of the first building there are 14 white wooden crosses behind a barrier, surrounded by withered flowers and plush toys – the memory of the fact that 14 people were killed here on January 1 of this year. A man had raced into the celebrating crowd with a pickup truck.
Jessica Seyl lives in French Quarter and was on the Bourbon Street on New Year’s Night – before the attack happened. Now, a few weeks later, she is sitting in a fire-red T-shirt that of the Kansas City Chiefs With a man and dog on the side of the road in the warm sun and looks at armed soldiers and concrete barriers. It is a bit annoying and a bit uncomfortable, she says, but “We welcome all the help that protect us”.
Soldiers on the promenade mile
Where previously people strolled from a pub with a drink in the hand in the hand, they are now stopped at every intersection of barriers and soldiers.
Soldiers are present on the Bourbon Street.
The Super Bowl Is one of the best protected events in the USA anyway. Tens of thousands of people in a stadium, another tens of thousands on the way in a city – that could attract assassins. Since the attack in New Orleans, the NFL has improved again and checked its security concepts again and again, said Cathy Lanier, the security officer of the NFL, this week without going too detail.
There is no specific threat, emphasized Kristi Noem, the new Minister of Internal Security. Nevertheless, thousands of police officers and soldiers are on the road in the city. Dogs, drones and armored vehicles not only secure the party mile, but also other events of the NFL and the Super Bowl themselves. Behind the scenes, the network will be searched for an attack.
US President Trump also comes
Police chief Anne Kirkpatrick does not cause any other headache that President Trump is now also coming. You would have expected that that could happen and had planned it before the official announcement, said Kirkpatrick.
The superdome should be monitored in particular from the air. A flight ban for private drones has been in place in New Orleans for days. But a residual risk will always remain. A woman died at the Super Bowl Parade of Chiefs in January 2024 and many other people were injured because a man shot around. Something like that can also happen in Louisiana, where everyone who is over 18 can carry a weapon with them.
The superdome is to be monitored primarily from the air.
Some fans came with a queasy feeling. She hesitated and was nervous, says Meredith Mongaloose from Philadelphia, but now that she saw the Bourbon Street, she feels much better. And her husband Robert is not worried either. The worst thing that could happen, he says, would be if the Eagles lose.