TAMPA, Fla. — After a year off in 2021 due to the pandemic, Gasparilla, Tampa’s signature pirate celebration, returned.
The Jose Gasparilla pirate ship set sail at noon and docked at Tampa Convention Center, cannons and cap guns firing. Mayor Jane Castor “surrendered” the key to the city and kicked off the Parade of Pirates, which marched north on Bayshore Boulevard into downtown on a cold, windy day in Tampa.
A large contingent of Ye Mystic Krewe pirates disembarked, coozied beers and cocktails in hand, as a large crowd awaiting them cheered.
“Gasparilla is back,” Castor said from a lectern after pirates hung beads around her neck.
By 5 p.m. the parade had arrived in downtown. People dressed up as pirates threw out beads as they walked along Bayshore Boulevard.
There was something new at the head of the Gasparilla parade this year. Two black horses pulled a cart carrying the “tomb” of dreaded (and mythical) pirate Jose Gaspar, the parade and pirate festival’s namesake. Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla is marking the 200-year anniversary of Gaspar’s “death” in 1821 (by leaping into the sea during a battle with the American Navy) during this year’s festivities.
Not far behind were the Clydesdales.
Reports that Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady may be planning to retire from football (or maybe not?) surfaced during the Gasparilla parade.
“I’m shocked,” said Caven Kern, 25, a lifelong Buccaneers fan celebrating Gasparilla in downtown Tampa, after hearing the reports.
“I thought he’d come back another year,” Kern said of the quarterback who led the Bucs to a Super Bowl victory in 2021. “Because no one’s ever played at 45, and I thought he’d want to be the first guy to do it. This is probably the saddest day not for the Bucs, but for the NFL. Cause he’s the greatest of all time. It feels like a funeral’s taken place.
“I wonder if it was his plan to announce it on a pirate day like this.”
Along Bayshore Boulevard, Jeffrey Feliciano was wearing a Brady jersey waiting for his first Gasparilla parade to start when he heard the news.
“I’m not feeling good, man, but Brady deserves it. He proved himself in the Super Bowl and even in the playoffs. He proved himself taking us back from so far behind.”
“I’m from Boston, so I’m a Brady fan before I’m a Bucs fan,” said Andrew Allekien, 18, a local college student.
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