A picture-perfect Super Bowl record

Port Washington native John Biever is the last member of an elite club, one that gave him a front row seat to Super Bowl LV on Sunday — literally.

Biever, who was in the front row of the stands at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa shooting the game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs for NFL Photos, is the only photographer to have taken photos at every Super Bowl.

For Biever, attending the Super Bowl is a tribute to his father, the late Vernon Biever, who was the official Green Bay Packers photographer.

Vernon Biever attended the first 35 Super Bowls — ironically, the last one he photographed was also at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa — but he wanted his son to continue to attend the big game.

“He encouraged me to keep going,” Biever said. “It was pretty important to him that I keep the streak going.”

His wife Deb, who has been working as a runner with him for the last five Super Bowls, told him that his father was watching over the game, Biever said, noting it was supposed to rain but didn’t.

“Your dad told it not to,” she told Biever. 

Biever, 69, was only 15 when he and his father shot the first Super Bowl as the Green Bay Packers took on the Chiefs at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in L.A.

“At age 15, it’s all kind of new to you,” he said.

Celebrities were allowed on the field then, he said, and he remembers standing on the sidelines next to Bob Hope, who was snapping his own pictures on his Instamatic camera.

Biever recalled watching Packers wide receiver Max McGee catching a pass from quarterback Bart Starr to score the first touchdown in Super Bowl history.

“I got a picture of it,” Biever said. “That’s kind of important.”

He took his most memorable Super Bowl photo at that game, he added. It was after the Packers won the game and coach Vince Lombardi was running off the field. Biever snapped a shot that caught not only Lombardi but his father Vernon on the side.

“Two heroes in the same picture,” he said.

His father brought him along to Super Bowl II as well, Biever said. But the Super Bowl streak almost ended there when  Vernon Biever couldn’t get a pass for his son to Super Bowl III.

That changed after his father got to the Orange Bowl in Miami and Steve Sabol of NFL Films asked Vernon, “Where’s John?” When Sabol found out Biever didn’t have credentials for his son, he quickly responded, “I’ve got a pass for him,” Biever said. 

Biever took Super Bowl photographs for NFL Properties for years before covering Super Bowls 20 through 50 for Sports Illustrated as a contract and staff photographer. He’s been shooting for NFL Photos for the last five Super Bowls.

The big game has evolved through the years, Biever said.

Those first Super Bowls drew only about 30 photographers, compared to roughly 300 in more recent years.

Initially, he shot the Super Bowl with film, something that made for nerve-racking nights.

“You didn’t know if you had a picture,” he said, noting the film was flown to New York for processing right after the game. “There were a lot of sleepless nights after the Super Bowl, wondering, ‘Did I get the picture?’ Then the magazine would come out on Thursday and you could say, ‘Yeah, I did’ — or  ‘I didn’t.’

“With digital, it’s much easier.”

During the early games, he would typically shoot 30 rolls of 36-exposure film.

“A lot of them were throw-aways,” Biever said. 

Today, he probably takes 1,500 photos during a game — roughly twice as many as in the early days.

Biever shoots with a Nikon camera, and he took four lenses to Sunday’s big game so he could catch the action no matter where it occurred.

Shooting a football game isn’t easy, as photographers need to have a sixth sense where the action will be.

Biever is retired, and the Super Bowl is the only football game he shoots during the year — a feat that sometimes surprises the other photographers there.

“The game’s the game. I’ve photographed so many football games in my life. College and professional, probably 800 to 1,000 games in my career,” he said. “It just kind of clicks in now.”

Although Super Bowl Sunday is a long day for fans who congregate and party, it’s a longer slog for those working the event. 

“It’s a 12-hour day just to go to the Super Bowl,” he said.

While photographers used to get a break at halftime, which was more of an afterthought than anything, that’s changed in recent years.

“Now it’s a key, important element,” Biever said.

Biever gets to the stadium by about 2 p.m. for the game, and says security is tight.

“They’re so worried about it becoming a target for terrorists,” he said. “It’s very much a bubble.”

This year, those attending had to go through a health screening due to the pandemic as well.

This year’s game wasn’t one of the most exciting Biever has seen, but he said it was nice to see the Bucs win in their home stadium. The celebration afterward was intense, he said, noting it took an hour-and-a-half to get back to his hotel five miles from the stadium.

While Biever is the only photographer to shoot every Super Bowl game, he’s not the only person to have attended every Super Bowl. 

Detroit News sports writer Jerry Green, who is 92, is the only reporter to have accomplished that feat, Biever said.

George Toma, a groundskeeper, has worked the field at every Super Bowl, and a group of three fans who have been at every one of the big games, Biever said. And Norma Hunt, widow of the Chiefs’ founder Lamar, has been at every game as well.

This won’t be his last Super Bowl, Biever said.

“I see no reason not to get to 60 years,” he said, especially since he started when he was 15 while the other longtime photographers were older.

“I have a good reason to be the last one standing.”