Arizona nuns were rooting and praying for Packers

The Yuma nuns hail from the Holy Family Convent in Manitowoc, Wis., about 45 minutes from Green Bay. They joke members have to be Packers fan to join the community.

“We have always been fans, even the older ones,” Charleen said.

This Super Bowl Sunday, “we'll be watching,” she said. “We'll probably have some sort of tailgate food.”

They agree that it should be a “Wisconsin meal — brats and beer and cheese.” Or pizza, like they do at “Mother House” in Wisconsin.

Residents of the Manitowoc convent take their Green Bay Packers seriously. According to the Yuma nuns, former head coach Mike Sherman gave the Wisconsin convent a big screen to view the games and the screening room, which sports three rows of theater seats, is decked out in Packers memorabilia and decorated in the team's green and yellow.

Whenever tickets are available, the nuns go to actual games. Jan, when teaching in Green Bay, went to a Packers vs. Detroit Lions game when her cousin played for the Lions. The weather was 10 degrees below zero, but that didn't keep her away. Her only problem? “I didn't know who to cheer for.”

Whenever there was a game, the nuns, young and old, crowded around the television to watch it. Patrice remembers an elderly sister who worried so much when the Packers were losing that she would run up the steps into the chapel to pray and then return to game watching, Patrice said.

Curiously, she noted, the Packers would usually start to win. But if the team started to lose again, she would run up the steps into the chapel and pray again.

“She was so elderly, I don't know how she got the energy,” Patrice said.

Another sister, Sean Marie, won the chance to toss the first ball at a game after winning an essay contest.

“She was a die-hard fan,” Ann Mary said, noting she passed away last summer. “She was sick with cancer, but she wouldn't miss it for anything.”

Asked if people thought it unusual for nuns to be such enthusiastic football fans, Charleen quipped, “We're real people, too.”

Yuma(Arizona) Sun