These 5 friends have been to every Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is an exciting time for many friends to get together.

For one group of friends, it's become a tradition to not only watch the game but go to the game.

>> Read more trending stories

 Today.com reported in 2016 that friends known as "The Super Bowl Five" have gone to every single Super Bowl game.

In 1967, the New Yorkers decided to fly to Los Angeles to see the AFL-NFL World Championship Game.

Tickets were $10, and the stadium was half full.

Sylvan Schefler, Lew Rappaport, Al Schragis, Larry McDonald and Harvey Rothenberg watched the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10.

It was what would later be known as Super Bowl I.

As the men get ready for Super Bowl 50, they will have attended every one of the major games since the Super Bowl began.

"We're devoted to each other, and we're devoted to the Super Bowl," Rothenberg said.

The men range in age from 70s to 80s. "Nothing is forever. We all understand that," Schefler said. "But we've been blessed to have had the opportunity to say this is 50 years."

The group, who go by the nicknames Prez, Prof, Chicago Lew, Larry Mac and The Fog, have one rule for their annual trip: No wives.

"One or two times, my wife would come (on the trip),'' Rothenberg said. "While we were at the game, she'd come and go into my hotel room and wait for me to come back."

The men have seen each other through difficult times personally and in the games.

Of Whitney Houston's national anthem performance in 1991, McDonald said, "That was the most emotional time I think we've ever had."

"There was not a dry eye in the whole stadium,'' Schefler said.

All the men are military veterans.

Of the 2004 halftime "wardrobe malfunction" with Janet Jackson, Schragis said, "I almost missed it. But I saw it."

The men encouraged Rothenberg to go when his father died a week before the game one year.

When McDonald didn't have enough money to go another year, his friends chipped in and paid for his trip.

"Wait a minute,'' Rothenberg jokingly said to McDonald. "You still owe us money."

The men look forward to where the next 10 years and 10 games will take them.

"I've been thinking about Super Bowl 60,'' Rappaport said. 

About the Author