Sarasota Memorial Hospital has announced that its patient care team from 5 Waldemere Tower was the first group of front-line health care heroes to be invited by the NFL to Super Bowl LV, which will take place on Sunday, Feb. 7, in Tampa. The SMH team, which works on one of the hospital's busiest COVID-19 units, heard a few weeks ago that health care workers would be honored at the Super Bowl. They sent a video to the host committee asking for tickets, not knowing if they’d hear back.

This week, the team got on a Zoom call expecting to speak to SMH president and CEO David Verinder—and instead were surprised by a special interruption and invitation from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. All of the invited health care workers will have received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine at least two weeks before the game on Feb. 7.