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Paul Tagliabue attended countless Super Bowls and met scores of U.S. Presidents and foreign leaders during his 17-year tenure as NFL Commissioner.

But the 77-year-old New Jersey native had never experienced anything like the second line parade to honor former Saints owner Tom Benson on Friday (March 23) in the French Quarter.

"I didn't know anything about a second line until someone sent me a video of an impromptu second line last week," Tagliabue said Friday afternoon, still trying to mentally digest the experience. "It was incredible."



Yes, it was. From the sun-kissed afternoon under a blue-bird sky to the wall-to-wall media coverage to the diverse milieu of fans that gathered by the hundreds in Jackson Square to pay their respects to one of the city's most popular and powerful men, it was a day many New Orleanians won't soon forget.

Benson was memorialized during a formal Catholic Mass at St. Louis Cathedral, the iconic church in the heart of New Orleans' famed Vieux Carre where he met his wife Gayle, 14 years ago. The standing-room-only crowd of 1,000 at the invitation-only hour-long ceremony included NFL and NBA commissioners Roger Goodell and Adam Silver, respectively, Gov. John Bel Edwards, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Mayor-elect LaToya Cantrell.

After the prayer came the party, as only New Orleans can produce.

A traditional New Orleans funeral procession, organized by Jazz Fest producer Quint Davis, made its way along the crumbling, centuries-old streets as a teeming mass of Saints fans, curiosity-seekers and tourists lined the four-block route down Chartres Street to the Old Ursuline Convent.

A black-and-gold horse-drawn carriage transporting the casket led the procession. The Young Men Olympian Jr. and Original Big 7 social and aid and pleasure clubs followed, dancing and marching alongside as the Storyville Stompers brass band played funeral dirges like "A Closer Walk with Thee" and "St. James Infirmary."

The star-studded congregation stretched behind the hearse for two blocks and included, among others, Saints quarterback Drew Brees and head coach Sean Payton, along with New Orleans Pelicans power forward Anthony Davis and general manager Dell Demps, who served as honorary pallbearers at the service.

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