The Super Bowl comes with a few givens – championship-level athleticism, the best commercials of the year – and, on the sidelines, John Biever with his camera. Biever, 74, is the only photographer to photograph every single Super Bowl game, and after Sunday, the longtime photographer plans to retire, making Super Bowl LX his last.
In fact, Biever’s history on the sidelines starts before the NFL’s national championship game even earned the Super Bowl moniker. He was just 14 when he photographed the NFL Championship Game in 1965, alongside his father, Vern Biever, who was the team photographer for the Green Bay Packers. Despite being only 14, one of the images that he took at the 1965 game between the Packers and the Cleveland Browns was published in a magazine, a black-and-white photo of quarterback Bart Starr.
The following year, Biever would photograph the Packers' win in the first-ever Super Bowl, again alongside his dad, who would go on to photograph 35 Super Bowls alongside his son. The first ever Super Bowl wasn’t the same crowds – or number of photographers – that the game has today. One of Biever’s all-time favorite photos shows wide receiver Max McGee running to the end zone with a line of empty seats behind him.
“First of all, there weren’t that many photographers on the sideline for the first one, like there are now,” Biever told the Associated Press. “I remember Bob Hope being next to me at one point on the sidelines at the first Super Bowl. Hollywood stars would show up and just walk on the field and go where they wanted to go. And here’s Bob Hope, and it’s like, wow, for a kid from Wisconsin, that’s pretty cool.”
Now, Biever has noted that there are usually three rows of photographers, and the sidelines have far less room to move around.
The second year, the teenage photographer would catch the winning touchdown for the 1967 Ice Bowl on film, a touchdown that allowed the Packers – and the Bievers – to photograph the second Super Bowl too.
The Packers' Super Bowl streak ended after the first two, but Vernon Biever’s friend at NFL Films helped the father-son photo team get passes for the next several games, until both of the Vievers received full NFL credentials.
John Biever would go on to college, then work as a photo journalist before spending 30 years with Sports Illustrated, then photographing the games for NFL Photos.
That decades-long career comes with its fair share of stories. Once, he was hit in a play at the opening kickoff and broke his camera and his glasses. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, photographers weren’t allowed on the field, but Biever managed to get a stadium seat near the end zone and continue his streak of games.
Over the years, the gear has changed too, evolving from film to digital. In 2003, Biever used digital for the first time at a Super Bowl – the Canon EOS 1D with the EF 600mm f/4L IS USM lens. “I'm sure the editors were not exactly sure these little digital flash media cards would work,” he said. Over the years, he’s worked with both Canon and Nikon systems.
Biever told the New York Times that Super Bowl 60 will be his final one, with retirement in his future. The photographer will turn 75 just a few days after this year’s Super Bowl, leaving behind an iconic sports photography legacy.
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