Sugar Bowl playoff game postponed to Thursday after New Orleans attack

NEW ORLEANS – The Sugar Bowl, a New Orleans tradition and the last of the four College Football Playoff quarterfinals, was postponed until Thursday, Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley announced during a news conference Wednesday afternoon, just hours after the deadly truck attack in the Bourbon Street area.

“There’s just too much stuff we don’t know,” Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-Louisiana) said during the news conference. “It’s just not worth it.”

The game, between Georgia and Notre Dame, will kick off at 1 p.m. Thursday instead of its originally scheduled time of 5:45 p.m. Wednesday.

It will be played under heightened security, officials said, after the truck attack Wednesday morning killed at least 15 people and injured dozens of others. The FBI said it is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism and that authorities think the suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, did not act alone.

The news conference took place across the street from the Superdome, which was surrounded by police cars – blue lights all flashing – throughout Wednesday. Anne Kirkpatrick, New Orleans’s superintendent of police, estimated that 400 local, state and federal officers had combed the Bourbon Street area for explosive devices.

“For the citizens out there thinking, ‘Man, do I really want to go to the Sugar Bowl tomorrow?’ I’ll tell you one thing: Your governor is going to be there,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) said during Wednesday’s news conference.

“That is proof that we believe that that facility and this city is safer today than it was yesterday.”

By Wednesday afternoon, fans scrambled to change flights and hotel reservations, needing to extend their stay by a night to catch the game. But some were torn about whether they would still attend at all.

Andrew Tokarski and his parents had driven together from Orlando to see their beloved Georgia Bulldogs, but the tragedy had left them badly shaken. Tokarski, 33, had been just moments away when the suspect drove into the crowd of victims early Wednesday. So hours later, over drinks outside Voodoo Chicken & Daiquiris on Canal Street, they agreed the game was not for them.

“We’ve decided we’re going home,” Tokarski said. His mother started to cry. He stood up and gave her a hug. His father, Victor Barnett, still looked rattled.

“I’d love to go to the game. I’ve been a Georgia Bulldog fan my entire life,” said Barnett, 57, an alumnus who worked in law enforcement. “But I just don’t think I need to risk two of the most important people in my life.”

Barnett paused.

“We spent a couple thousand dollars to come drink daiquiris,” he said.

They planned to leave by Thursday morning. Tokarski said he was glad they had driven because, given his experience, “I wouldn’t be getting on a plane.” He had been feeling “mixed emotions” all day, he acknowledged. “Five minutes I’m fine; next five minutes I’m bawling my eyes out.”

Jeff Agan, 42, drove to New Orleans with his wife and 9-year-old son from Rome, Georgia. Wary of crime, the Georgia fans stayed just outside town but awoke Wednesday to frantic texts from loved ones worried they had been injured in the attack.

“I didn’t know anything about it until people started texting me, ‘Are you okay?’” Agan said.

“They’re blowing our phone up still,” Kayla Agan, 40, said as the family stood on Canal Street on Wednesday afternoon, all wearing red Georgia hoodies. After the game was postponed, the Agans extended their hotel room and headed for the French Quarter, undeterred. Fellow Georgia fans passed, as did Notre Dame fans in green sweatshirts and hats.

Many paused to watch police behind yellow tape across the street. Ambulances had arrived and appeared to be removing bodies.

“Can’t understand what’s going on in the world,” said Jeff Agan, who works for a tire company, adding that he felt safe because “a lightning bolt don’t usually hit the same place twice.”

They were not aware authorities were still searching for suspects.

“That’s concerning. Hopefully they can catch them,” Agan said. His son, Kamden, looked serious, saying, “I’m a little bit scared.” But they still plan to attend the game.

“Tragedy happens,” Agan said. “Life moves on.”

At the end of Wednesday’s news conference, a reporter asked Landry what gave him confidence the Sugar Bowl will be safe to attend. Landry again said “I’m going to be there!” while stepping back from the lectern. The reporter pushed further, asking what security improvements would be made ahead of the game. Landry didn’t answer, his back to the room then. Another reporter shouted, “You’re a bodyguard for 70,000 people?” Landry didn’t address that, either.

The other CFP games scheduled for Wednesday in Atlanta and Pasadena, California, were played as scheduled. After the Sugar Bowl, New Orleans is set to host the Super Bowl in February.

“Rest assured, the decision to postpone the game was not done lightly,” Rep. Troy Carter (D-Louisiana) said during Wednesday’s news conference. “It was done with one single thing in mind: public safety. Making sure that the citizens and visitors of this great city, not only for this event but for every event you come to in Louisiana, that you will be safe.”

Leonie Treadwell traveled to New Orleans for the first time this week from Melbourne, Australia, to see her son play for Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.

She was out on Bourbon Street late Tuesday night but left just before midnight to watch fireworks over the Mississippi, then returned to her hotel just outside the French Quarter.

“I heard ruckus, the sirens. I just thought it was what happens in the U.S. on New Year’s,” she said as she stood on Canal Street Wednesday evening.

She awoke to texts from her son, who had gone to bed early but knew she’d been out on Bourbon Street and was worried. Treadwell planned to stay for the game, but she teared up as she described how the experience had been “traumatizing.”

“I think I’m in shock,” she said. “I can’t help thinking of all those poor people because I was just with them having a good time. It’s horrible that there is this evil, to do that.”

She returned to the scene to run some errands, trying to forget what had happened but also reassured by the crowds. “It’s actually nice to see people out,” she said.

She left Canal Street to visit her son before turning in until the next day’s game.