ORLANDO, Fla. – Downtown Orlando didn’t exactly explode in jubilation.

After the Tampa Bay Buccaneers topped the Green Bay Packers and earned a trip to Super Bowl LV in Tampa, patrons at the Stagger Inn hugged, hoisted beers and whooped it up for a couple of minutes. Then they largely went back to being bar patrons.

What You Need To Know

  • Longwood resident: “First team ever to host a Super Bowl. Go Tampa! Go Bucs!”

  • Packers fans outnumbered Bucs fans at many downtown Orlando bars on Sunday

  • Masks and social distancing not a feature of downtown Orlando during the game

Henry Noel, a Longwood resident, stood as an exception.

He wore a replica jersey of Tom Brady, the quarterback who led the Bucs into the playoffs for the first time since 2007. And he wore it with lasting heart.

“I’m so excited,” Noel said about five minutes after the Bucs’ 31-26 victory in the NFC Championship Game. “First team ever to host a Super Bowl. Go Tampa! Go Bucs!”

Noel’s wife, Rebekah, whooped it up with him.

“Technically, I’m only a Bucs fan because he’s a Bucs fan,” she said of her husband. “I’m a Minnesota fan. The Minnesota Vikings are what I grew up on. Clearly, they just didn’t want it this year, so I’m going to support the hubby and wear the Bucs gear and be excited for him.”

Patricia Ojeda, a lifelong Orlando resident, stood with the Bucs. Her Bucs shirt said so.

“I think it’s amazing,” she said of the victory. “I was expecting them to win. Obviously, Brady’s amazing.”

At many downtown bars on Sunday night, fans in Packers jerseys far outnumbered those in Bucs jerseys.

That called into question whether Orlando is a Bucs town.

“It’s really not,” Ojeda said. “There’s really a lot of transplants. We have a multitude of different fans here.”

Yet throughout downtown bars, Bucs jerseys — even as few as there were — appeared to far outnumber masks.

And social distancing?

From outside the bars, we observed no enthusiasm — certainly no cheering — for that.