TAMPA (WFLA) – The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are Super Bowl champions and with the Lombardi Trophy returning to Tampa for the first time since 2003 also comes the return of a Super Bowl parade.
Mayor Jane Castor joined NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and members of the Tampa Super Bowl host committee on Monday for a closing press conference. The mayor told reporters a parade or celebration will happen later in the week, with an exact date announced soon.
“Everybody will be able to participate and participate safely,” Castor said.
Past championship celebrations, whether it be the Lightning in 2020 or the Bucs in 2003, would indicate a parade on Tuesday. However, Castor said later Monday morning that a decision likely won’t be made until Tuesday or Wednesday.
“We’re in talks right now, so we’re hoping that by tomorrow or Wednesday, we should have more definitive information,” the mayor said at the Tampa Convention Center.
While Castor indicated in her NFL press conference earlier that “everybody” will be able to participate in the parade celebration, she later offered that those seen partying Sunday night without masks or social distance won’t be invited to the parade.
“How do you have a celebration going forward when you know that people are going to come out like that?” a reporter asked.
“First of all, we won’t invite any of those individuals to the celebration,” she said. “But we had tens of thousands of people all over this city. Downtown, out by the stadium, Ybor City, down here in Channelside, and had very very few incidents. I’m proud of our community.”
She added that the large crowds of people seen partying around the city were “spontaneous” celebrations and not in a controlled environment like a championship parade will be.
Castor said those “few bad actors” will be identified and handled by the Tampa Police Department.