TAMPA, Fla — After 54 years, the "Never Miss a Super Bowl Club" thought their impressive streak of attending every big game the NFL has held was coming to an end.
The culprit? The coronavirus pandemic.
A reduced number of fans will be allowed into Raymond James Stadium for Super Bowl LV to abide by safety and social distancing guidance. The requirement makes one of the world's most elusive event tickets just that much harder to get.
That's why Don Crisman, 84, began to accept 2021 would be the year he and his buddies' perfect attendance at football's biggest game would come to an end.
But the NFL had other plans.
"For two weeks, we thought it was over. Then the NFL came through with an invoice for two tickets," Crisman told Seacoast Online.
Now he will get to catch the action live right here in Tampa Bay on Feb. 7 along with his daughter and club members Tom Henschel and Gregory Eaton.
CBS Sports reports the group has been able to pay face value for their tickets over the years, other than when the League paid for the group to attend Super Bowl 50.
And even the sticker shock has not deterred the club from, as their name says, never missing a Super Bowl. In 1967, the group paid $12 for a ticket to the NFL's first Super Bowl compared to the thousands of dollars it costs to attend today.
Now, all these years later, Crisman told the northeast news outlet he's surprised that a simple "yes" when asked by a local bank to attend the first game in LA sparked such an impressive run.
The group started off with five members, but one, Stan Whittaker passed after attending 42 Super Bowls and another man dropped out after being given an ultimatum.
“I don’t think we even knew if we’d have the opportunity. I don’t think that was in our thought process," Crisman told Seacoast Online.
Super Bowl III changed things for the club.
“That’s when we decided to see how far we could get,” Crisman added. It wasn't until the 10th Super Bowl that the men adopted the "Never Miss a Super Bowl" title.
Being a Patriots fan, when Crisman gets to the Sunshine State he says he will be cheering for Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
If the Buccaneers can accomplish that feat, they will be the first team in NFL history to both play in and win a Super Bowl at their home stadium.
You can catch Super Bowl LV at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 7 as CBS broadcasts the game, which you can watch locally on 10 Tampa Bay.
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