MIAMI, Fla. (NEXSTAR) — For many people, attending the Super Bowl is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
For veteran newspaper columnist Jerry Green, the Super Bowl has become an annual tradition.
Green, a retired columnist from Detroit, made history when he arrived in Miami this week. The 91-year-old is now the only newspaper writer to cover every Super Bowl. That’s right, all 54 of them.
“It’s totally different,” Green said of how the big game has grown in popularity over the years. “Super Bowl I was a curiosity. I mean, it didn’t sell out. Ticket prices were 15 bucks.”
With 50-plus Super Bowls under his belt, Green is a walking, talking Big Game encyclopedia. His first Super Bowl was about Hank Stram and Vince Lombard after the Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl I.
Remember that famous picture from Super Bowl III when New York Jets legend Joe Namath held court with select media by the pool? He was there, too.
“He walked out in a bathing suit to the pool,” Green recalled. “A few minutes later, another writer came out and said Namath has agreed to speak to a few of us. I said, ‘are you bleeping kidding me?’”
Nowadays, at 91, Green doesn’t venture far from his hotel. But he will still turn another column to add to his remarkable — and historic — archives. And he has no plans of stopping.
“I’ve always said that ‘quit’ is the worst four-letter word in the language,” he said. “As long as I can do it, I’m going to do it.”
As for which game over the years he considered to be the best, Green — without hesitation — quickly pointed to the Super Bowl just a few years ago in 2017 between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons.