Packers coach gives Super Bowl tickets to Minnesota veterans

Here’s a shocker — Minnesota Vikings fans attended the Super Bowl with tickets given away by a Green Bay Packers coach.

Packers receivers coach David Raih and his brother gave their four Super Bowl tickets to veterans in Minnesota.

The Raih brothers have done this before, giving away their tickets to veterans in cities that host the Super Bowl. They contact a local veterans service organization that, in turn, chooses veterans to attend the biggest pro football game of the year.

“They’re shooting for people who have been going through hardship, are homeless or recently homeless,” said Chris Lowe, who works with homeless veterans as a veterans justice advocate with Volunteers of America, Minnesota.

Lowe went to the game with the three veterans — one served during peacetime and the other two are Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Two of the veterans learned of their good fortune while attending a live local NBC affiliate morning show on Friday .

“We gave them the tickets as a surprise on air,” said Lowe, who persuaded two of the three veterans to show up to see a former Vikings player appear on the show.

When the veterans were called up from the audience for a photo, they were asked to hold a board that read, “We’re going to the Super Bowl!”

“I, in my wildest dreams, didn’t think I’d attend the Super Bowl, especially with the prices. They gave me basically $20,000 of cardboard in an envelope,” Lowe said in a phone interview Monday afternoon.

“It was fun, it was good for them. They really liked the experience.”

David Raih was a quarterback at the University of Iowa from 1999 to 2003 and has coached for the Packers the last four years. Last month he was named Green Bay’s wide receivers coach.

David and Chris Raih couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.