KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) — "Five hundred thousand of Kansas City Chiefs fans gathered in downtown Kansas City for Wednesday’s Super Bowl parade and rally.

The Chiefs’ Championship Parade began at noon Wednesday and traveled from the River Market down Grand Boulevard. The parade then turned toward Union Station with a rally.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid and Super Bowl MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes were riding in double-decker buses, joined by teammates, family and Chiefs officials, in front of fans standing up to 10 people deep as the parade rolled down a main downtown street on the way to a rally at Union Station. Chiefs owner Clark Hunt stood in one of the buses holding the Lombardi Trophy, denoting the Chiefs’ 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl on Sunday. He later handed it off to players, who passed it around.

Most all schools, many businesses and some government offices in the Kansas City metro area were closed to allow fans to enjoy the festivities. All of the 4 local TV stations had live 3 hour coverage of the entire parade and championship rally. Each station will also offer 4 repeat broadcasts (at different times) of the event this coming weekend. The Super Bowl Parade and Rally afterwards were a really big deal in the Metro. Just as was the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl win!!!

Fans were generally happy and in good spirits while waiting in long lines for food trucks, merchandise trucks and, of course, portable toilets."

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Unlike in 2020 - when Patrick Mahomes, Trevis Kelcie, and the members of the Chiefs team in 2019 won their first Super Bowl for Kansas City - my husband and I "sat" the festivities out this year. IMO, COVID is still too much of a problem for us to safely go back to life as we knew it before March 2020. My husband is a senior citizen; so, we now avoid crowds of total strangers of unknown health status...

Nevertheless, I do remember being part of the Royal's 2016 World Series win PLUS the Chiefs' 2020 Super Bowl wins. I covered the celebrations for weeks during those major city events. I remember being in the thick of it all for both. Back then, I wasn't concerned about being in crowds with people packed in together so tight that strangers' bodies (on all sides) touched one another. There were times where you could barely move because the crowd was that dense. Even those of us with press passes often had to deal with the very close quarters & being crammed in with a lot of people you didn't know. In some cases, it was difficult to try to raise a regular camera. In situations like that, I could only use a Cell Phone Cam to get the photos I needed. I've never been thrilled with big crowds like that. However, in those particular situations, I actually had fun. There is a true thrill to such an event; despite all else. People connect emotionally; not just physically.

The COVID pandemic unfortunately has changed what I'm now willing or not willing to do. As much as I would have liked to have repeated my covering the Chiefs Road to the Super Bowl their 2023 win (like I did the 2020 Chiefs' celebrations), I no longer feel "safe" in doing many things that I used to do. So, this year was a no go for me. I honestly did long to be back into the thick of things. I absolutely hate living life vicariously. But I also realize that sometimes, that is for the best. I "safely" stayed home and just watched it all on TV. Like my photos above (taken of the TV screen) lack the quality of a real-life experience, so did the whole thing of just watching things happen on TV and not being there in person. Maybe by the next time the Chiefs win another Super Bowl, there will be a more effective COVID vaccine & I won't have to worry about the health of my husband or myself. COVID is here to stay. We need better protection. Meanwhile, everyone will have to live with their own personal risk assessment of how to handle the situation. For the time being, crowds of strangers will now have to remain merely virtual crowds on TV for us: not real ones. 2023 is not 2019. I so miss my life before March 2020... But 2019 is gone forever.

Meanwhile, for the Metro as a whole, the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl in 2023 (for the second time in 4 years) seemed to even be more exciting than winning in 2020 (after a 50 year draught). Maybe that's because many are just starting to try to return to life as normal. Or maybe it's because a city winning a second Super Bowl really is exciting for its residents. Although I enjoyed seeing it all on TV, it just wasn't the same for me as being out there in real life. Still, I'm proud of our hometown team. Most people think of this area are "fly over" territory. However, maybe this recent win will help those on both coasts to look at things a little bit differently going forward. Good things do sometimes happen in Kansas City. Having a Super Bowl winning football team is one of them. It brings out community spirit in a good way.

And for the record, Kansas City seems to handle these large events a lot better than some other cities. The worst reported things that happened this year during the Super Bowl Parade and Rally was "one fan stood on a horse; another fell from a tree with his pants down." No fires, no overturned cars, no unruly mobs. When I saw on TV that guy standing on the horse's saddle, I kind of wondered about that. But like everyone else in the crowd, he didn't do anything more than just watch. And the rest of the packed crowd didn't seem to mind his presence. Odd but certainly not that mentionable. Ditto with the guy falling out of the tree. His pants falling down were an opps, not anything more. No one tried to climb a light post.