New Orleans Terror Attack Leaves Football Fans Shaken as Attention Now Turns to Safety of Super Bowl

The 2025 All-State Sugar Bowl played out smoothly Thursday night at New Orleans. Now comes the hard part, making fans feel safe as the city braces for the massive spectacle of Super Bowl LIX on February 9 at the Caesars Superdome.Notre Dame defeated Georgia 23-10 to advance to next week’s semifinal game against Penn State in the College Football Playoffs. The Sugar Bowl was postponed for one day after 15 people were killed and dozens injured when a speeding truck plowed into a crowd of New Year’s Eve revelers on Bourbon Street at about 3 a.m. Wednesday morning.Postponing the Sugar Bowl allowed security officials to lock down the Superdome, expand the protective perimeter around the venue, and deploy additional officers along area streets including the bustling French Quarter.With the kickoff to Super Bowl LIX getting closer each day, local, state, and federal officials will team with the NFL to enhance their safety plans for one of the year’s most anticipated and heavily attended events.“We have been working collaboratively with our public safety partners and the NFL for more than two years on a comprehensive security plan for the 2025 Super Bowl,” the chief executive of the Greater New Orleans Sports Federation, Jay Cicero, told Nola.Com. “These discussions and plans will continue in the coming days and weeks ahead.”The driver of the truck, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran, was killed in a shootout with police. According to the FBI, he acted alone but was “100 percent inspired” by the Islamic State, an extremist group known as ISIS. “This was an act of terrorism,” the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, Christopher Raia, said per the Associated Press. “It was premeditated and an evil act.”This won’t be the first Super Bowl to be held amid a heightened threat of terrorism. Nor the first at New Orleans. Super Bowl XXV between the New York Giants and the Buffalo Bills was played in January 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, prompting what, for then, were unprecedented measures.Concrete barriers circled the parking lots of the now-demolished Tampa Stadium. A six-foot-high chain link fence also was erected around the stadium to control access. No umbrellas or cameras were allowed into the stadium, and the Goodyear blimp was grounded.Fans passed through screening checkpoints, and snipers could be seen on the rooftop of the stadium as Whitney Houston delivered her memorable rendition of the national anthem. The Giants upset the favored Bills, 20-19, and many of the security measures enacted that year remain in place.Super Bowl XXXVI at the Superdome became the first played in February after being pushed back a week due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in September 2001. Regarded as the biggest security effort in the history of football, the game pitting the New England Patriots against the St. Louis Rams, was the first athletic event granted National Special Security Event status by Homeland Security, allowing the use of an unprecedented amount of government resources including the Secret Service, military aircraft, and the National Guard.The 72,000 fans who attended the Patriots’ 20-17 win at New Orleans were encouraged to arrive up to five hours early to ensure they would get into the stadium by kickoff and many stood in line behind an eight-foot fence and concrete barriers for hours before being patted down by security guards and passing through metal detectors.Such precautions have become a way of life when attending sporting events and many tactics go unseen by fans such as facial recognition technology, social media intelligence, cybersecurity monitoring, K-9 units for explosives, and plainclothes officers.Sadly, Mayor LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans acknowledged that bollards, thick posts used to deny vehicle access to stadiums, streets, and major buildings, were not in place when Jabbar inflicted his carnage. The bollards, according to the mayor, are being replaced ahead of the Super Bowl.“There will be more deep conversations in the coming days and weeks to discuss possible enhancements for the Super Bowl,” the head of New Orleans & Company, a marketing and tourism company, Walter Leger III, said at a press conference. “We already had a great plan in place and certainly when there is an event like this it makes you look and see what further enhancements might be made.”

New Orleans Terror Attack Leaves Football Fans Shaken as Attention Now Turns to Safety of Super Bowl

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