Submitted Photo Pictured is Scott Thrasher. The New Hampshire health care worker and Dunkirk native was selected to attend the big game on Sunday in Tampa Bay.

When Dunkirk native Scott Thrasher’s boss at Hanover Health Care Center in New Hampshire asked him about his Super Bowl plans, Thrasher joked that he wasn’t going to watch the Bills play. When asked if he wanted to go, he laughed.

His boss wasn’t joking.

Thrasher, 42, will be at Sunday’s big game in Tampa Bay as a gift from the NFL, as part of the NFL’s initiative to send 25,000 vaccinated health care workers from across the country to Florida in recognition of the hard work they have had to do during the pandemic.

“It’s pretty cool,” Thrasher said. “Our facility was selected as the only long term health care facility in New Hampshire and I was selected as our representative.”

It’s been a busier week than normal for Thrasher, because of all the attention he’s gotten from being selected to go, on top of all of his normal work with the pandemic still ongoing. And while Saturday and Sunday will give Thrasher a second to relax, the process of getting to Tampa Bay will be a whirlwind.

“I get to go on Robert Kraft’s team plane, which is the same plane that flew PPE into the New England region at the beginning of the pandemic,” Thrasher said. “I’ll be joined by about 75 other health care workers from the region. We get to stay near Gillette Stadium, go to the airport early Sunday morning, fly out and then fly back. It’s almost like a media day for health care workers. It’s definitely an honor.”

The health care workers will be featured in a digital Miley Cyrus concert during the pregame, and will also receive gift cards to spend on anything at the stadium as part of the experience. Although Thrasher met his eligibility to be selected, he cut it pretty close to the deadline.

“The only reason I get to go to this is because on my last day that I could get it, I received my second vaccination,” Thrasher said. “If I would have gotten it on January 25 instead of January 24, I wouldn’t have been able to go.”

Thrasher, despite living in New Hampshire, is still a Bills season ticket holder, and would come home a couple times a year to see a game, then would sell the rest of his tickets to his friends and family in the area. Thrasher is disappointed that the Bills aren’t playing, but there are many different aspects of the game he’s going to enjoy, including sharing ideas with all the other healthcare workers that’ll be in attendance.

“I know the pandemic sucks but I’m looking forward to seeing how it all plays out from the non-healthcare world and how they handle things,” Thrasher said. “I’m looking forward to talking to other healthcare workers. We’ll all be sitting next to each other with people from all over. I’ll be wearing my Bills stuff too.”

As for the game itself, Thrasher’s opinion on who he’d like to see win may not be the most popular with Bills fans.

“I don’t want the Chiefs to win,” Thrasher said. “This is why Brady left. I have a bunch of friends who are Patriots fans. I don’t like the guy, but I can’t deny he’s the greatest. But both quarterbacks are great.”