Philadelphia Schools Are Closing So Kids Can Go to the Eagles’ Super Bowl Parade

The Philadelphia Eagles brought the City of Brotherly Love its second-ever Super Bowl title after defeating the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. They’re also giving a gift to the local kids: a day off from school.

The team and city are planning to host their victory parade on Feb. 14, meaning there will be an influx of visitors heading into the downtown area to catch a glimpse of the Vince Lombardi Trophy along with the celebrating players and coaches. As a result, the city has opted to close all of its schools so that there’s one less traffic nightmare to worry about and to let those young Eagles fans attend the second-ever Super Bowl parade in Philadelphia.

Mayor Cherelle Parker, who famously misspelled the team’s name while attempting to yell out the iconic chant, was in attendance during the announcement on Tuesday morning.

Parker unveiled the parade route and what the day will look like across the city, which will see the procession of floats and cars head from the stadium complex in South Philly towards the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Once there, the players and coaches will be able to take the mic and speak to the crowd.

Don Smolenski, the president of the team, was also in attendance and spoke very highly of the fan base and the “awesome” event that they have planned, “You’ve been with us for generations. You’ve been with us all season,” he said.

Talk about a moment those students will remember — assuming they’re Eagles fans. It’s not often a sports team directly impacts its fans (outside of the emotional highs and lows), so getting a day off from school because of something your favorite team did on the field is pretty cool. I can’t help but imagine that the folks over at the Abbott Elementary writer’s room are already figuring out how to draw up an episode based exactly on this storyline.

It is interesting to note that Philadelphia is hosting a parade at all. There was some light skepticism on the tradition of winning teams holding the event after Kansas City had previously said they would not have one after a shooting occurred at their parade in 2024.

But a lot of planning goes into a parade of this magnitude, and with it, security is tightened to an extreme degree, as you can imagine.

Friday will be an exciting time for sports fans in the city, and as an added bonus, the area kids don’t have to sit through a boring math class.