Cabot's Henschel determined to not let streak end
CABOT — The Super Streak is over?
Not if Tom Henschel can help it.
Henschel, 79, of Cabot, is one of three people to attend all 54 Super Bowl games. For the past 35 of them, the NFL has sent an invoice to Henschel as a means of buying his tickets.
But not this year.
“The NFL contacted me and said they can't help us this year,” Henschel said. “We were told Super Bowl tickets will be limited to advertisers and families of NFL players.
“I'm distraught about this. I don't know what to do about it. I tried telling (the NFL spokesman) this was a big deal, us going to every game all these years.
“He said 'this is just one of those years' and that was it,” Henschel said.
Henschel and Don Crisman, 82, of Maine were believed to be the only two to attend every Super Bowl game. A third man, Gregory Eaton of Lansing, Mich., surfaced last year claiming to have attended them all.
Besides making game tickets available to Henschel and Crisman each year, the NFL has also hosted a luncheon for them on-site, at which they fielded questions from the media.
“I just don't want to see it end like this,” Henschel said of his streak. His goal has been to attend the first 60 Super Bowls.
Ironically, Super Bowl LV is scheduled for Tampa, Fla. — only minutes from Henschel's winter home.
“I live four or five miles from the stadium,” he said. “I've been a season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Bucs in years past and the Miami Dolphins before that.
“I'm still planning on getting into that stadium.”
Henschel added that Crisman has already booked a hotel room in Tampa and is planning on coming to the game.
He and Henschel may have to buy their way in — and that would be an expensive proposition.
“Players throughout the NFL get a few tickets to the game and that's what's going to be out there,” Henschel said. “Three or four times, I've shown up at the stadium without tickets, waved around a fistful of cash until I got one.
“If the Steelers get there, it might cost me $7,000 or $8,000 to get a ticket. I'm going to do it. All I need is one.”
