As college football fans packed into the Ceasars Superdome in New Orleans Thursday afternoon to watch the highly-anticipated Sugar Bowl matchup between the University of Georgia and Notre Dame, the stadium observed a moment of silence for the victims of the deadly New Year's Day attack a day earlier on the town's historic Bourbon Street.
The Sugar Bowl, which was scheduled to be played Wednesday at 7:45 p.m. local time, was ultimately postponed until Thursday at 3 p.m. to allow time for bomb-sniffing dogs to sweep the Superdome and ensure there were no other threats associated with the attack.
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The ESPN broadcast of the game began with a message from President Joe Biden.
"Today all of America stands with the people of New Orleans," he said. "We pray for those killed and injured in yesterday's attack, and we're grateful, we're grateful of those brave first responders who raced to save lives."
"The spirit of New Orleans can never be kept down, and that's also true to the spirit of America," President Biden continued. "Just have to remember who we are. We're the United States of America. There's nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together. God bless New Orleans and God protect our troops."
Just hours before kickoff, city officials also reopened Bourbon Street for the first time since the attack — which occurred less than a mile from the Superdome. Security, meanwhile, was ramped up in and around the stadium as fans filed in, while a helicopter also circled overhead.
The FBI said 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran from Texas, drove into a crowd of New Year's revelers around 3 a.m. local time in the popular area of Bourbon and Canal Street.
In addition to the 14 killed, officials said dozens of others were injured. Authorities said Jabbar was also killed at the scene following a gunfight with police.
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Prior to the game, Anne Kirkpatrick, superintendent of New Orleans Police, said additional resources were being used to secure the Superdome as an estimated 70,000 fans were set enter the stadium Thursday afternoon.
"We have proven that we can provide safe passage to the Superdome and back," she said. "We've done that time and time again. We're going to just harden our plan. We're going to harden our targets is what we're going to do, but we believe we can absolutely provide a safe and wonderful environment today."