Sunday, February 3, 2019—the New England Patriots won Super Bowl LIII. Shortly after their 13–3 victory against the Los Angeles Rams, Boston mayor, Marty Walsh, declared at 10:07 p.m. on twitter, “LET’S GO!!!! Congratulations on another Super Bowl championship @Patriots!! Fire up the duck boats @CityOfBoston! We will see you at the #SBLIII parade Tuesday at 11:00am!”

With the trains overcrowded on the morning of, the Boston Police Department (BPD) estimated that around 1.5 million people showed up to celebrate the win. Starting in Back Bay, at the Hynes Convention Center, the signature parade duck boats snaked up Boylston Street, past the Public Garden and Boston Common, turning on Tremont Street, and finally all the way to Boston City Hall on Cambridge Street.

Although the MBTA staff at Braintree Station tried holding strong against the crowd, at around 9:30 a.m. they finally held open the gates and let the horde flood through. As the train cars filled up, rambunctious teens were yelling about the win; a group of boys even started to sing “We Are The Champions” by Queen. Across all the public transit, the difference between regular commuters, and people who had never set foot on the T before was very clear.

The majority of the kids and teenagers got off at Downtown Crossing, while the everyday commuters going to the parade stayed on until Park Street where they hit the Greenline to head to the start of the parade. One woman on the Greenline said she wanted to be able to leave quickly after the duckboats went by. The Boston Globe reported that, “. . . trains were swamped by what T officials said was record ridership, about double the 127,000 trips of a typical day.”

Even though the streets became more and more crowded, the parade started right on time. At 10:52 a.m. the empty buses that had just dropped the players off sped by, and before long the duckboats drove by filled with Patriots staff, players, coaches, and of course, the football stars. On one of the first vehicles was Bill Belichick, head coach of the team, and his girlfriend, Linda Holliday. Although the duckboats carrying staff didn’t get as much cheering, the people were excited nonetheless. Everyone really went crazy when star quarterback, Tom Brady, rode by holding the trophy as well as the boat with wide receiver, Julian Edelman. Even the duckboats carrying the lesser known players brought forth cheerful yelling.

Blasting music was coupled with cheers from fans while millions of pieces of red, white, and blue confetti sprinkled all over the crowd. From old to young and everyone in between, the turnout proved anyone can be a fan of American football. Many held signs to show the team members. One sign from a man with a mustache had a message on both sides of the paper: the front saying “Free Portnoy, Fire Goodell” with “Roger That” on the back.

So that they would not have the same issue as at the Red Sox’s World Series victory parade back in October, officials requested that the parade attendees do not throw beers or anything else at the people on the boats. In a quick change of events, some boats threw Super Bowl t-shirts into the crowd for people to fight for. Throughout the entire duration of the parade and parade festivities, BPD reported only 12 arrests out of the million and a half who showed up.

Others around the country peg Boston’s sports fans as the most annoying, but the city stands by its teams and this continuous cycle shows what it means to be a Bostonian—we’ll see you at the next parade.