Ahead of Sunday’s NFL Super Bowl showdown, “The Sodfather” has been busy preparing the field like he always has since the big game started. George Toma is putting the finishing touches on the turf at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The Sunday marks the 57th Super Bowl and groundskeeper Toma has tended to all of them but is set for his final event at the age of 94.
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He’s been in Glendale, Arizona for about two weeks, working with the NFL to get the grounds ready for the big game and halftime show. He says sod care is a bigger core for the halftime show than the game itself. The game will be played between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
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Who is George Toma?
George Toma is a 94-year-old groundskeeper. He started working on the fields for Super Bowl I in 1967 with a budget of $500. Toma started his career as a groundskeeper at age 13 in 1942. The death of his father forced the young Toma to find work with the grounds crew at the minor league ballpark in Wilkes-Barre. Toma was the head groundkeeper at the age of 17.
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At 28, in 1957, he became the head groundskeeper for the Kansas City Athletics of Major League Baseball. In 1963, he worked as the groundskeeper for the Kansas City Chiefs. Toma also worked as the head groundskeeper for the 1984 and 1996 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
Super Bowl LVII will be Toma’s last but with the prospect of even greener pastures ahead in retirement, “The Sodfather” has one final job to do. “I believe the grass we have here today is the second-best grass we had for 57 Super Bowls,” Toma said.
Toma is at the Super Bowl with his son Ryan, who is there to help his father. Ryan says his dad tries his best to be nonpartisan, but even the grounds crew leaned one way or the other.
