85-year-old fan's streak of Packers playoff games will go on

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — An 85-year-old Green Bay Packers fan who has never missed a playoff game at Lambeau Field thought her streak was coming to an end this week until two charitable brothers heard her story.

Fritzie Neitzel went to her first Packers game with her father in October 1945, when she was 10. As longtime season ticket holders, her family unsuccessfully tried buying seats for the NFC championship game once they went on sale.

That's when the Spirit of Wisconsin Booster Club, a charity led by Steve and Neal Ewing, heard Neitzel's story and gifted her tickets to the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the Packers said all tickets on cellphones are nontransferable.

So Steve Ewing drove from Milwaukee to Green Bay to hand off the phone with the tickets.

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