Giants Super Bowl Parade: The View from JR.com

See Giants Parade slide show.

“Soo-pah!” The giant crowd outside our window at JR.com was tuning up early this morning, over 2 hours before the Giants Super Bowl Parade. Our offices are in downtown Manhattan, above J&R Music and Computer World, the giant store on lower Broadway. Many of us can remember the giant parades in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000 for the Yankees; this could be even larger (all right, enough with “giant”).

Young kids and their Moms were pouring out of the subways this morning, blue jerseys and blue hats rippling down the street. Many had black under their eyes, like their idols on the team. Unescorted young people have been lining Broadway since dawn, blue and white jerseys blotting out the sidewalks. Schools have the option to close in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut today because of the primary election. It’s a good thing, too, because schools would be deserted, judging from the demographic of the crowd.

There have been parades in other cities, of course, but the euphoria that surrounds a tickertape parade in New York is quite special. The canyons formed by the tall buildings of Broadway amplify the sound incredibly, and paper raining down can cover a human being. An army of Sanitation Department workers, who clean up after the parades, create mammoth mountains of discarded paper. Streams of paper left hanging in the trees in City Hall Park remained for months after the last Yankee parade.

It is quite warm in New York today, but with a chance of showers. It is hard to believe that anything could dampen the spirits of this crowd, however. Even though it has been two days since the Giants’ amazing victory over the Patriots, the buzz from that improbable win is still palpable around the city. Eli’s scramble, David Tyree’s incredible catch, and the defensive push from Strahan, Umenyiora, and Tuck have already achieved mythic status.

The parade this morning will run from Battery Place to City Hall, and then continue this afternoon at Giants Stadium in New Jersey (trivia: the only team that actually plays in New York is the Buffalo Bills). Hundreds of thousands of giddy fans in Jersey will join the celebration. One thing’s for sure, the predominate sound of the day in this area will undoubtedly be “Les-go Gi-ants!”

This entry was posted by Uncle Bill on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 4:05 pm