KC Chiefs exchange valentine love with giddy fans on sunny Super Bowl parade route

Appropriately, the Chiefs’ latest Super Bowl celebration fell on Valentine’s Day.

There was plenty of love projected from hundreds of thousands of fans toward the double-decker buses and trucks carrying players, coaches and team personnel along Grand Boulevard to the championship rally at Union Station.

The players returned that affection to the fans, some of whom had claimed prime viewing spots Tuesday night.

“There’s so much love,” running back Jerick McKinnon, told KSHB 41.

It was the third Super Bowl parade in five years to celebrate a Chiefs championship — and first under sunny skies.

With temperatures around 60 degrees, Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt and his wife Tavia and daughter Gracie rode in a lead team bus with head coach Andy Reid and his wife Tammy. With them at the front of the two-level bus sat the Lombardi Trophy, the hardware earned for winning Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday with a 25-22 overtime triumph over the San Francisco 49ers.

The loud cheers along the route continued unabated for the players, especially when they left their bus to walk along the route and greet fans — as superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes, linebacker Willie Gay Jr. and others did throughout.

Members of the Chiefs’ offensive and defensive lines were among the first players to provide that personal touch. Guard Nick Allegretti, who played nearly three quarters of the Super Bowl with a torn ligament in his elbow, high-fived fans while wearing a Chicago Blackhawks Conner Bedard jersey.

Punter Tommy Townsend wore a powder-blue Royals jersey. Gay went shirtless, signing posters and footballs. Other defensive players wore their “In Spags We Trust shirts,” honoring defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who signed a contract extension this week.

There was rookie defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah, the former Kansas State star and Lee’s Summit native who said he’s come a long way in five years.

“I’m lit,” he said. “I was here in 2020 (watching the parade), and I was on the side. Now I’m here. This is crazy.”

Drue Tranquil, the former Los Angeles Chargers linebacker who signed a one-year deal with the Chiefs, grabbed a KSHB television microphone and repeated, “This is way better than LA.”

He continued while running down the playoff route: “Miami. Got ‘em. Buffalo. Got ‘em. Baltimore. Can’t beat them, big bad wolf. No chance! Then the big, bad 49ers. Big Red, T-Swift and the boys took it!”

That may have been the day’s first Taylor Swift reference. But the iconic music star and girlfriend of Travis Kelce who followed the team during most of the season — and throughout the playoffs — didn’t make the parade. She’s headed to Australia on tour.

By the time the parade vehicles turned right on Pershing Road to Union Station, Mahomes and nearly every other player was walking.