{"id":455187,"date":"2026-02-07T21:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T21:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/455187\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T21:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T21:47:08","slug":"they-will-have-been-to-all-60-super-bowls-this-year-is-possibly-their-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/455187\/","title":{"rendered":"They will have been to all 60 Super Bowls. This year is possibly their last"},"content":{"rendered":"

KENNEBUNK, Maine \u2014 It just wouldn\u2019t feel like the Super Bowl<\/a> for them if they weren\u2019t all there. And this might be the last time they all do it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what three old friends were coming to grips with just before this year\u2019s Super Bowl<\/a>. The trio of octogenarians are the only fans left in the exclusive \u201cnever missed a Super Bowl\u201d<\/a> club.<\/p>\n

Don Crisman of Maine, Gregory Eaton of Michigan and Tom Henschel of Florida were back for another big game this year. But two of them are grappling with the fact that advancing years and decreasing mobility mean this is probably the last time.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s game pits the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday. Crisman, a Patriots fan since the franchise started, was excited to see his team in the game for a record-setting 12th time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will definitely be the final one,\u201d said Crisman, who made the trip with his daughter, Susan Metevier. \u201cWe made it to 60.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting older, scaling back<\/p>\n

Crisman, who first met Henschel at the 1983 Super Bowl, turns 90 this year. Meanwhile, Henschel, 84, has been slowed by a stroke. Both said this is the last time they\u2019ll make the increasingly expensive<\/a> trip to the game, although members of the group have said that before<\/a>. For his part, Eaton, 86, plans to keep going as long as he\u2019s still physically able.<\/p>\n

Eaton, who runs a ground transportation company in Detroit, is the only member of the group not retired. And he\u2019d still like to finally see his beloved Detroit Lions make it to a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Even so, all three said they\u2019ve scaled back the time they dedicate each year to the trip. Crisman used to spend a week in the host city, soaking in the pomp and pageantry. These days, it\u2019s just about the game, not the hype.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t go for a week anymore, we go for three or four days,\u201d Crisman said.<\/p>\n

Eaton, too, admits the price and hype of the big game have gotten to be a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all of them are big, they\u2019re all fun. It\u2019s just gotten so commercial. It\u2019s a $10,000 trip now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth it to see Don and Tom, Eaton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re my brothers,\u201d he said during a Friday news conference with the others. \u201cWe check on each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friendly rivalries over the years<\/p>\n

Henschel said this year\u2019s Super Bowl would be the most challenging for him because of his stroke, but he, too, was excited to see Eaton and Crisman one more time.<\/p>\n

Eaton met Crisman and Henschel in the mid-2010s after years of attending the Super Bowl separately. And Henschel and Crisman have a long-running rivalry: Their respective favorite teams \u2014 the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots \u2014 are AFC rivals.<\/p>\n

The fans have attended every game since the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, as the first two Super Bowls were known at the time, in 1967. They have sometimes<\/a> sat together in the past, but logistics make it impossible some years.<\/p>\n

But this year it was just about being able to go to the game at all, Henschel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t talk or walk good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, he can\u2019t wait for kickoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in my blood. I love football over all the sports,\u201d Henschel said Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s the best dang game.\u201d<\/p>\n

An ever-shrinking club<\/p>\n

The club of people who have never missed a Super Bowl once included other fans, executives, media members and even groundskeepers, but as time has passed, the group has shrunk. Photographer John Biever<\/a>, who has shot every Super Bowl, also plans to let his streak end at 60.<\/p>\n

The three fans spin tales of past games that often focus less on the action on the field than on the different world where old Super Bowls took place. Henschel scored a $12 ticket for the 1969 Super Bowl the day of the game. Crisman endured a 24-hour train ride to Miami for the 1968 Super Bowl. Eaton, who is Black, remembers the many years before Doug Williams<\/a> became the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl in 1988.<\/p>\n

Metevier, Crisman\u2019s daughter, was born the year of the first Super Bowl and grew up with her dad\u2019s streak as a fixture in her life. She\u2019s looking forward to going to one last game with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of bittersweet. It\u2019s about the memories,\u201d Metevier said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about the football, it\u2019s something more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crisman\u2019s son, Don Crisman Jr., said he\u2019s on board with his dad making the trip for as long as he\u2019s still able, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, he\u2019s a little long in the tooth, but the way I put it, if it was me and I was mobile and I could go, I would damn sure go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KENNEBUNK, Maine \u2014 It just wouldn\u2019t feel like the Super Bowl for them if they weren\u2019t all there.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-455187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}