2019 Super Bowl: 35,000 visit Patriots’ send-off rally at Gillette Stadium

Super Bowl week is upon us: in only six days, the New England Patriots will play for their record-tying sixth Super Bowl title against the NFC champion Los Angeles Rams. Yesterday, the team flew down to Atlanta to start its on-site preparations for the big game — but not before holding a traditional send-off rally. And this one was the biggest of them all: according to the club, 35,000 people were in attendance.

From the looks of it, this number looks pretty accurate:

While rallies took place at NRG Plaza outside The Hall at Patriots Place the last two years, the team moved inside Gillette Stadium this time around — a good decision when looking at the crowd. “This is an awesome crowd. Just tremendous. This is the biggest sendoff we’ve ever had,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick told the thousands in attendance during the event.

Belichick was not the only speaker to address the crowd. Team owners Robert and Jonathan Kraft spoke and reflected back on 25 years of ownership, before giving the stage to the head coach and team captains Tom Brady, David Andrews, James White, Devin McCourty, Patrick Chung and Matthew Slater. Brady in particular got the crowd fired up by starting a “We’re still here” chant:

After the Patriots were here — i.e. at Gillette Stadium — they boarded buses to Providence and their team plane to fly down to Atlanta.