City Hall Plaza was built to be a functional playground for the city’s politicians and civil employees. On Tuesday, the victory parade for the New England Patriots ended in the plaza, as Bostonians took to the streets to celebrate the team’s win in Super Bowl XXXVIII.
Preparations for the event began Monday afternoon as sound systems, a big screen television and fencing were assembled. Fleets of news trucks lined Tremont Street, which flanks the south end of the plaza.
“I was here two years ago, and there were about a million people last time, if not much more,” said Tom Pigulski, who came in on the train from Stoughton with his 20-year-old son Tuesday morning. Pigulski, a Patriots fan since 1960, works for Verizon around the Northeastern area.
Pigulski was one of the estimated 1.5 million fans who turned out for the celebration, according to the Boston Police. From the early morning, cheers echoed in the plaza, including those of “Yankees suck.”
“Believe me, if the Red Sox ever won the pennant – the World Series – it would be like a nuclear bomb had gone off in downtown,” Pigulski said.
As the Duck Boats carried the team, the coaching staff and the cheerleaders snaked down Boylston Street and onto Tremont Street, confetti rained from office buildings and cheers drowned out the welcoming bells of the Park Street Church and the nearby Old Granary Burial Grounds, where fellow patriot Paul Revere is buried.
Owner Robert Kraft, Vice Chairman John Kraft, Head Coach Bill Belichick and quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady rode with the championship trophy in the first of 10 vehicles.
“I came last time, but I didn’t get to see Tom Brady as much as last year,” said Jeannine Cavalero of Winchester, who works downtown. “He needed to take his hat off so we could see him.”
The crowd lining the street consisted of people in business attire, young children, high school and college students and fans ditching work.
“I’m skipping work today,” said Iris Miles, an employee at the Showcase Cinemas in Dedham.
Miles spoke in a gruff voice because she has been “yelling since Sunday, since the championship.”
Jen Hayes, 16, of Dorchester said her mother, an avid Patriots fan, allowed her to skip class from Mount St. Joseph’s because of the parade. Hayes also skipped school two years earlier for the same reason.
For police, it was not a day to call in sick.
In order to keep the parade-goers at bay, police forces from Cambridge, Boston, MBTA and the Massachusetts State Police monitored traffic.
A patrolman with Boston Police said his day consisted of holding people off of the parade route and keeping traffic moving. With the high numbers of people attending the event, police were needed on foot, horses and motorcycles.
When the team made it to the stage in Government Center by motorcade, Kraft, Belichick and the Patriots had time to thank Boston and all of New England.
“For a team to achieve their goals, each [member] has to give up a little individuality, that’s what this team did,” Belichick said.
The ceremony ended the same as it did two years ago, with cornerback Ty Law commanding the D.J. to play some music. Brady, Belichick and Kraft were pulled to the front to dance despite Belichick’s earlier insistence that “you’re not going to see me dancing anymore.”
Screams from the crowd lasted several hours after the celebration with the excitement that “their team” brought home a second World Championship in three years.
“One [championship] was nice, two is a lot nicer,” Brady said. “But, I need number three.”
