TAMPA, Fla. — Editor's note: Video at the top of this story was originally published on Feb. 1, 2021 by our Tampa affiliate WTSP.
Northeast Ohio pride took over Super Bowl LV before the battle even started Sunday as Suzie Dorner, a 2008 Revere alum who is facing the COVID-19 pandemic as an ICU nurse in Tampa, was selected to do the coin toss as one of the game’s three honorary captains.
Days before her big moment in the international spotlight, Dorner talked with Revere Local Schools in Summit County about receiving the honor.
“I’m still not entirely sure how I was selected, but I was on a Zoom call with Rob Higgins, who is the executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission,” Dorner said. “I was assuming that he was going to be presenting me with a few tickets to hand out to my team members, but little did I know Derrick Brooks, who is a Tampa Bay Buccaneers Hall of Fame player, was also on the line. That’s when he announced that I was going to be one of the honorary captains of Super Bowl 55.”
The pregame poem performed by Amanda Gorman – “Chorus of the Captains” – was done in honor of Dorner, the game’s two other honorary captains and community heroes everywhere.
Dorner also told Revere Local Schools that the last year facing COVID-19 as an ICU nurse has been extremely challenging.
“We’ve all endured so much through this pandemic and I think the frontline workers have really taken the brunt of this pandemic," she said. "As a nation, two or three weeks ago we hit over 400,000 lives lost to COVID-19, which is a staggering number. It’s been hard; physically, emotionally and mentally just draining and exhausting. You know, I have an amazing team that I work with. We try and keep things positive and hold each other up. Day in and day out we show up, we’re here and providing world-class care to this patient population.”
There was another Northeast Ohio connection during that coin toss. Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, who was a football star in Cleveland Heights during his high school years, won the toss for his team by calling heads.
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