On Super Bowl Sunday, Don Crisman will be in the SoFi Stadium crowd, watching the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals battle for the championship. Crisman has attended every Super Bowl. So, Super Bowl LVI will not be Crisman’s first experience at the big game. He does expect that it will be his last.
Patrick Whittle of the Associated Press reported that Crisman will likely make Super Bowl LVI his last, quoting Crisman as saying he’s “moving slower, but I guess that’s better than the alternative.”
Crisman is one of seven people to attend every Super Bowl. Two of the others are fellow fans, Gregory Eaton and Tom Henschel, part of the Never Miss a Super Bowl Club. While the trio didn’t know each other when the first Super Bowl was played in 1967, have bonded over the years and now sit together every year.
Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk noted that the others are “sportswriter Jerry Green, photographer John Biever, groundskeeper George Toma, and Norma Hunt, the widow of Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt.”
Crisman, a New England Patriots fan from Maine, has gotten to see his favorite team a lot in the Super Bowl. More than any other team. The Patriots’ 11 Super Bowl appearances are the most of any team. Their six victories are tied for the most with the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, if Super Bowl LVII is his last, Crisman is arguably leaving with more great memories than anyone.
And on that note, he’s not entirely slamming the door shut on going to Super Bowl LVII. But he won’t go to Arizona next year to see just anyone.
“Barring a Mac Jones miracle next year,” he said, per Whittle. “One year at a time, but I’m feeling we’re very near the end.”
There you have it. We can’t say we expect to see New England in Super Bowl LVII. But stranger things have happened.