Super Bowl With a Smirk: He covered all 56 SBs, a one-man club. But his historic streak is ending

There ought to be one seat in the press box purposely left vacant on Sunday, because an historic streak is over.

Jerry Green of the Detroit News, the last sports writer to have been to all 56 Super Bowls, isn’t back to cover the 57th. The club of one is now none. Done.

Green, now 94, retired from the News in 2004 but kept attending Super Bowls on the paper’s dime -- the last few from a wheelchair, and with his daughter traveling with him, due to his failing physical health.

“I’m the last one,” he said a year ago. “How about that? But this [game] might be enough.”

Green recalls with great clarity being among a small group of reporters in January 1969 sitting poolside with Joe Namath at the Galt Ocean Mile hotel in Fort Lauderdale when Broadway Joe made his famous “guarantee.” (The Miami Herald’s Edwin Pope also was there.)

In a story in his own newspaper this week, Green was asked how it would feel to watch a Super Bowl on TV.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s something I’ve never done!”

While Green’s run has ended, another one continues.

Lifelong friends Gregory Eaton, Don Crisman and Tom Henschel, now all in their 80s and living in different states, have gathered in Arizona to keep alive their 57-year “Never Miss A Super Bowl Club” streak.

Eaton, who is Black, recalls having being made to stay in a different hotel from his white friends while attending one of the first Super Bowls held in South Florida in the early years. Now he speaks with pride at this SB featuring a duel of two black quarterbacks for the first time.

Rihanna will perform at halftime Sunday. “During that first game it was college bands performing,” said Eaton.

Everything changes. Except the Never Miss A Super Club reuniting eachg year.

▪ Michael Irvin sent packing: First controversy of Super Bowl Week didn’t involve an Eagle or a Chief, but a broadcaster. Popular former Miami Hurricane Michael Irvin has suddenly disappeared from NFL Network’s coverage after an allegation of misconduct against him involving an encounter with a woman Sunday evening. “I’m a bit baffled,” Irvin told the Dallas Morning News. “This all happened in a 45-second conversation in the lobby. What law did I break? There was definitely nothing physical. Nobody was in my room. I don’t know what this is, and it’s [driving] me crazy.”

If Irvin is right his network may have overreacted -- but also might know more about the encounter than has been reported. We withhold judgment but, either way, it’s a shame.

▪ Goodell takes first question from ... SuperMom!: Commissioner Roger Goodell’s annual Super Bowl state-of-the NFL press conference Wednesday opened media questions (!) with a couple of softballs from SuperMom Donna Kelce. “Gawd,” thought a thousand actual journalists, rolling their eyes violently.

▪ Ticket prices near record-high: The average ticket cost of about $9,000 thus far for Eagles-Chiefs is the second-highest in NFL history, according to Forbes. Wednesday on Vivid Seats the price range of available tickets was $3,534 to $18,313 each. The first Super Bowl on January 15, 1967 was the only one to not sell out, despite ticket prices being as low as $10 that week.

▪ Aaron Rodgers hopes to see his future in darkness: Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, 39, said this week he’ll embark on a four-day/four-night “darkness retreat” soon after the Super Bowl to help him divine spiritual understanding whether whether to play in 2023 and if so for whom. “An opportunity to do a little self-reflection in some isolation,” said Rodgers. Meanwhile, in Arizona, a thousand media covering the Super Bowl wished Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts were even half that loony.

▪ Big game to reach 176 countries (including Hungary): Andorra to Zimbabwe, Sunday’s game will be seen in 176 nations in almost 40 languages. Right, now just outside Budapest, two Hungarian crones minding a cauldron of goulash are discussing the two Super Bowl coaches. Says one with a leer: “Andy Reid, gömbölyded mint a kecskéim, mégis romantikát látok benne!” (“Andy Reid, he is plump like my goats, yet I see in him romance!”)

▪ Smirk Super-poll result: It’s a better-than-most matchup: We asked on Twitter your interest level in this Chiefs-Eagles matchup compared to other Super Bowls? While 55.7 percent said “about the same” in early results, “more interested” was leading “less interested” by 25.5 to 18.7 percent.

▪ Report from Sad, Sad Radio Row: More than 100 radio stations and podcasts are credentialed on Sad, Sad Radio Row in Phoenix, hosts sitting at mics and desperate for content praying someone they recognize agrees to sit down. A skirmish marred Wednesday’s tableau as competing talk-show hosts came to blows over who had first-dibs to Eagles backup long-snapper Tug Snappington.

▪ Super Bowl Party Tip du Jour: Surprise your guests as they settle in just before kickoff by switching suddenly to the Discovery Channel where, on ”Dirty Jobs,” host Mike Rowe will descend into the depths of an aging manhole to coat its cover with a polyurea liner.