The Northwest — Idaho, British Columbia, Seattle, the whole state of Washington —went kind of crazy for the Seahawks celebration.
Update 3:55 p.m. We've wrapped up for you with a video from Seattle Top Story, and all the updates from the parade and CenturyLink Field celebration of the Seahawks' Super Bowl victory.
Update 3:33 p.m. The celebration ends with Paul Allen and some of the players raising the Lombardi Trophy. But it probably is going to continue all over downtown. Were there really 1 million people?! Or 700,000?! Kam Chancellor tells a KCPQ reporter that the triumph hadn't really sunk in until he saw the crowds and the city's respect for the game and the players.
Update 3:20 p.m. Russell Wilson wraps up the players' talks to the crowd by talking about possibly winning another Super Bowl next year. His exit line ? Right. "Go, Hawks."
Update 3:18 p.m. Announcer Steve Raible introduces "a word from the defense." It's Richard Sherman speaking, who proclaims, "We love you, Seattle."
Update 3:16 p.m. Pete Carroll tells the crowd there is nothing like the team's relationship with its fans in all of professional sports.
Update 3:07 p.m. Team owner Paul Allen gets a huge cheer from the crowd after Steve Raible introduces him as the man who saved the Seahawks for Seattle. Allen says he has been told that 1 million people turned out for the event. (This is from KCPQ, which is broadcasting the event.)
Update 2:56 p.m The players are on the field, after walking on one at a time. They came in by number, highest to lowest. Doug Baldwin, 89, has a great grin. Richard Sherman, 25, comes out and then films the entry of Marshawn Lynch, 24. After the coaches enter, Russell Wilson carries on the Lombardi Trophy.
Update 2:35 p.m. The crowd at CenturyLink is watching a season-highlights film. They are getting psyched.
Update 2:33 p.m. Talk about classy: Just as the events in CenturyLink are about to start, the Seahawks used their own Twitter account to send out a picture of a child in Florida with a heart ailment whose wish is, according to his parents' post, to meet a Seahawk.
#Celebrate48 #seahawks #12man #BeastMode pic.twitter.com/leXmRfchtf
— Carrie & Camden (@credh1) February 5, 2014Update 2:25 p.m. On KCPQ 13, one of the Hawks players, Breno Giacomini, just challenged the fans in CenturyLink, where the players are finally arriving, to be as loud as the folks on the street.
Update 2:22 p.m. Who says newspapers are dead? Love this photo from the UW Daily's editor-in-chief, Joshua Bessex. Tag this #GoHawks and #GoSeattleTimes?
.@DangeRussWilson hoists the @seattletimes during the #seahawksparade @seattleweekly pic.twitter.com/COyVfJHezX
— Joshua Bessex (@Bessex_Joshua) February 5, 2014
Update: 2:18 p.m. Here's that Boeing jet Art Thiel mentioned earlier.
Just flew over stadium! GO HAWKS! #Celebrate48 pic.twitter.com/AcisjqDHf3
— Corine McKenzie (@CorineOnSTAR) February 5, 2014
Update: 1:35 p.m. The vehicles carrying the players have started to reach Pioneer Square, where the crowd is jam-packed.
Photo by Lindsey Engh
Update 1:20 p.m. Police are said to be asking people to limit cell-phone usage: The volume of phone us is slowing communications on the 911 system. And Sound Transit tweeted this out:
Hearing parade won't hit Century Link till 3, then the big ceremony. Plan on sticking around town this afternoon, commuters.
Earlier:
City officials' advance estimates of the crowd size had been escalating all week, starting at 100,000 and reaching 500,000. KING 5 has quoted a News Tribune report that police are now estimating there are 700,000. It's going to be hard to know — at least until someone with a super tech skills does some kind of super data analysis.
Smack in the middle of the hood of one of the vehicles carrying players, Marshawn Lynch sat, using almost as much energy as running.
He's throwing Skittles at the crowd. I love it. @moneylynch #seahawksparade pic.twitter.com/7vF4ZkYmeE
— Monica Guzman (@moniguzman) February 5, 2014Pioneer Square (Noon to 1 p.m.) Thousands of people are moving through the streets of Pioneer Square near Century Link Field. Many of them sporting 'Hawks jerseys and scarves and some wrapped in blankets bearing the team's insignia. "I'm super psyched," said a man named Zak in a Seahawks knit cap and hoody, as he walked toward Jackson street. He and a friend drove into the city from Snohomish and walked three miles to get to the center of the parade action.
On Jackson Street police motorcycles from Lynwood were parked next to a Seattle Police Department sedan and a Port of Seattle police cruiser. Groups of cops were also walking the streets on First Avenue South. A Seattle Fire Department Command and Control Unit Truck was parked on Occidental Street near Century Link.
The line outside the door of F.X. McRory's Steak Chop and Oyster House was about 15 deep. "We destroyed the Broncos in the Super Bowl," one man waiting in line said.
"Somebody told us the parade was late, so we bailed, and went for the beer," said Dawn, who works at a software development company in Bellevue. Her and a co-worker said they were "working remotely" for the day, taking a break at Seattle's Historic Triangle Pub. The bus ride into the city from Bellevue, which normally takes about 30 minutes, took 90 minutes this morning Dawn said. Her co-worker made a three mile walk to Pioneer Square from Georgetown.
Cell phone service in the area was spotty at times, presumably because of the massive amount of people trying to make calls.
In an alleyway near South King Street and Occidental Street a group of four kids ran, tossing a football, one of them with a Seahawks blanket draped over his back like a cape.
Horns honked on First Avenue South, as intermittent "Sea-HAWKS" chants erupted from pockets of the crowd. Temperatures were hand-stingingly frigid as a light breeze blew from the north.
People massed on South Jackson Street at Second Avenue South. Two Metro buses could be seen stopped on the northeast corner of the street.
"It's crazy busy," said Will Jackson, who was selling Seahawks memorabilia with his sons at a small cart parked in the middle of Occidental Street near the stadium. Seahawks Super Bowl Champion pennants, which sell for $10, were the hottest item of the day. A Bellingham resident, Jackson said he's been selling memorabilia for about 20 years. "We're local, a lot of these guys are from L.A." he said, referring to the other sellers working the area. Jackson was thrilled about the Super Bowl win, saying he's been a 'Hawks fan since 1976. "That's a long time," he said.
On KING 5 TV, Art Thiel notes that the FAA has given Boeing permission to fly a 737 over the parade route. Presumably the one that was decorated in Seahawks colors to fly around the state before the Super Bowl (non)contest. That will get a cheer out of the crowd.
'êLooks like a fantastic turnout for the #ReadingBowl champs today! #Celebrate48 #12parade pic.twitter.com/Qs4gZScAOF
— Seattle Library (@SPLBuzz) February 5, 2014
The parade got started late with the last vehicle carrying players leaving the EMP staging area at noon.
Moment of loudness nears at 12:12. Can I have an amen, brothers and sisters?
— Art Thiel (@Art_Thiel) February 5, 2014
There was plenty of noise at 12:12 p.m., when Gov. Jay Inslee had urged a "moment of loudness." But noise was epidemic and spontaneous long beforehand. On a route 26 Metro Transit bus, the packed passengers heading downtown mid-morning had chanted. The crowd in the front of the articulated bus would start, "Sea"; the back responded, "Hawks."
Captured @PeteCarroll as the parade began. His expression tells it all. #Celebrate48 #GoHawks pic.twitter.com/ptMkoQNYLk
— Kristi Waite (@kristiwaite) February 5, 2014
At 10: 30 a.m., a steady stream of Seahawks-gear-clad fans was steadily streaming toward downtown from as far south as the Spokane Street Viaduct. Around the same time, bumper-to-bumper traffic was reported even in Georgetown.
Weather in Seattle is uncharacteristic for February, with a cloudless sky and temperatures in the high 20s and low 30s. Impromptu chants swelled-up between fans moving north on foot and those sitting outside a coffee shop along First Avenue South. One group shouted:"Sea!" and the other group, in response, shouted: "HAWKS!"
