NFL To Host Thousands Of Healthcare Workers As Super Bowl Guests

About 7,500 healthcare workers will be special guests of the NFL at Sunday's Super Bowl in Tampa.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell calls them America's MVPs, and few would disagree.  

Florida nurse and Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan Rebecca Izquierdo is one of them.

"Oh my goodness, we are so excited," Izquierdo said.

Rebecca and her coworkers sent the NFL a video asking to be among the healthcare heroes at the game.

"Then we got the phone number for the NFL headquarters and we started calling them," Izquierdo said. "So, we were stalking them pretty much."

It worked, 24 staff members from Sarasota Memorial will be in the stands.

So will Rocky Walker. He's a chaplain at New York's Mount Sinai Heart hospital, where he has spent many challenging days visiting seriously ill COVID-19 patients and comforting staff.

"I've seen some of the, I think, worst things that I would ever want to see, and the amount of death, the indiscriminate nature of the death,” Walker said. “But there is a flip side to that, and I've seen humankind, mankind at its best.

The chaplain received his ticket from Patriots owner Robert Kraft, but he is a lifelong Kansas City Chiefs fan and can't wait to go to the game. He said he's representing millions of other healthcare workers who have risked their lives during the pandemic.

You can catch Super Bowl LV Sunday on CBS.