There are a lot of Super Bowl storylines that we’re starting to get tired of this week. From whether or not Rob Gronkowski will play in the big game after suffering a concussion during the AFC Championship Game against the Jaguars to what in the world is going on with Tom Brady’s gloved hand, there are some storylines that have run their course at this point. We’ll be glad when they end once Super Bowl LII between the Patriots and Eagles kicks off on Sunday night.
But do you know which storylines we just can’t get enough of right now? The ones that involve people surprising NFL fans with Super Bowl tickets. The internet seems to be filled with them, and frankly, we wish there were even more at the moment.
Super Bowl tickets definitely aren’t cheap this year. According to TicketIQ, the cheapest tickets for Super Bowl LII have hit a historic high. You will have to pay at least $4,500 for a single ticket to make your way into U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis for the game, and on average, fans are paying somewhere in the $7,000 range per ticket. That price could potentially rise even higher as we get later in the week.
It makes what some people are doing for others that much more special. Take this story out of Mount Laurel, N.J., for example. A group of parents and students took it upon themselves to raise more than $5,000 this week to buy Super Bowl tickets for Gary Kelmer, a bus driver who has been taking kids to and from school for decades now. He regularly sings the Eagles fight song on his bus route, so the parents and kids decided to surprise him with Super Bowl tickets, airfare, and personalized Eagles gear.
And he’s far from the only person who has been brought to tears this week after being surprised with Super Bowl tickets. In St. Paul, Minnesota, a youth football coach who regularly donates about 20 hours every week to providing instruction to young football players both on and off the field was also surprised with Super Bowl tickets. He attended an event at which he thought he was going to be interviewed by the mayor of St. Paul. But when it started, he was awarded an oversized Super Bowl LII ticket and told that he and his 7-year-old son would be going to the game.
Back in New Jersey, a 10-year-old boy from Cape May Court House who is currently battling cancer also got the surprise of a lifetime when he was told he and his parents would be going to the Super Bowl this season. The young Eagles fan expressed a desire to go to the game last week while making an appearance on a local TV station, and someone watching at home decided to surprise him with three tickets to the game, airfare, and hotel.
Another young Eagles who survived a battle with childhood cancer was also the recipient of a Super Bowl ticket thanks to, of all people, a generous Vikings fans. The Vikings fan had a ticket to the Super Bowl and was hoping he would get the chance to watch his team play in it. But after the Eagles knocked off the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game, the Vikings fan decided to donate his ticket instead, and it ended up going to the 13-year-old Eagles fan, who was beyond ecstatic when he found out he would be going to the game.
It appears as though there are also many younger Eagles fans who are stepping up and surprising their parents and grandparents with tickets to the game. It’s been more than a decade since the Eagles were in the Super Bowl, and the team has never won a Super Bowl in franchise history. So some young fans want to make sure their predecessors are in the building on Sunday, just in case the Eagles pull off the improbable and upset Brady and the Patriots. This 75-year-old man was so moved after his two sons surprised him with tickets that he couldn’t even finish eating his dinner.
There will no doubt be plenty of famous people in the house when Super Bowl LII takes place. There will also be lots of people fortunate enough to be blessed with the money to afford tickets to the game. But it’s nice to know that some of the people you see here will be there as well—and we can’t wait to see even more people get surprised with tickets to the Super Bowl between now and Sunday. These are definitely some of the best storylines you’ll see in the week leading up to the big game.
