After going over 50 years without a Super Bowl victory, the Philadelphia Eagles have now won two in the last eight seasons. They did so with a surprisingly young roster, the 5th-youngest in the league (average age: 25.5), to be exact. One of the youngsters that made a big impact, not only during the run to Super Bowl LIX this year, but in the Big Game itself, was Cooper DeJean.
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The rookie earned a starting role by October and became a key cog in Philly’s No. 1 pass defense. At 22, DeJean also became the youngest player to intercept a pass in the Super Bowl (and he returned it to the house), and just the 9th rookie to do so.
With all that physical speed and his quick ascension to NFL stardom, the slow pace of a champion’s post-Super Bowl week has been a shock to the system for the youngster.
“Yeah, the parade’s gonna be insane. Insane. I can’t wait for it. I’m sad that we had to wait until Friday. I wish that we could just have a parade all week long,” DeJean said on Kay and Adams.
He would love a week-long parade, but we’re not sure the City of Philadelphia survives. As the rookie already knows from just a few months playing in front of the Philly faithful, they can get wild (and weird) when their teams win (there’s a reason they grease up all the light poles in the city prior to big games), and celebrating with them will be a big part of that championship feeling.
“Especially [winning] in Philadelphia, you know, the fans that we have. Seeing them, all on Broad Street, doing crazy things, all up and down that street. It was awesome. I’m glad I won it here, in Philly, and no other place. It’s been a crazy last few days… People were knocking down stoplights, I don’t know if that’s legal or not, but I saw some videos of that. Saw some fireworks going off in the middle of the crowd,” he added.
DeJean, an uber-athletic rookie, a second-round pick out of Iowa with 4.42 speed, missed the first couple of weeks of the season with an injury. But, when he got in the game, he and fellow rookie CB Quinyon Mitchell took over the Eagles‘ secondary. He finished the year with 38 tackles, six passes defended, three TFLs, a forced fumble, and three fumble recoveries. The speedster also averaged 10.1 yards on 21 punt returns.
Despite the fact that he had to wait a few extra days, Cooper DeJean, the rest of his ecstatic teammates, and the raucous Philly faithful will be out in full force for the championship parade on Friday. Philadelphia would have liked to do it earlier, as DeJean would have hoped, but a snowstorm forced them to push it back.
The parade will begin at 11 am, and it should end around 2 pm at the Art Museum in Philly. The celebration there is expected to last another hour, with things wrapping up at 3 pm. However, if you’ve ever been to a sports celebration parade, you know things are usually massively delayed.
Folks, here is the Eagles Super Bowl parade route. pic.twitter.com/ZGICx4Dwih
— Jason Martinez (@JasonFox29) February 11, 2025
The parade route has been shared already. The procession will start on Broad Street, go around City Hall, and then proceed down Ben Franklin Parkway to its finish.
There will also be a pre-parade consisting of school buses carrying other special guests. 15 jumbotron screens will line the parade route for the million-plus fans the City is expecting at the celebration as well.
