Bucs fan helps Michigan family continue tradition at Bucs training camp
TAMPA, Fla. - A Michigan family was finally able to make the Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp with the help of a season ticket-holder. The family is continuing their decade-long tradition of visiting different NFL training camps over the summer.
The Brink family drove 1,500 miles from Michigan to make it to Bucs training camp this year. Each summer, the Brinks take a family vacation to a different NFL training camp and were dead set on coming to Tampa this season.
"Really we’ve been saying we would be coming to Tampa Bay since 2020," Courtney Brink, the mother of four, said.
Tom Brady was the big reason the family wanted to make it down to Tampa.
"Tom Brady is one of the best quarterbacks ever, and it was cool to just see him in person instead of on a TV screen," said Sadie Brink, the oldest of the Brink children.
While sweating it out in the Florida sun for a few hours might not be an ideal family vacation, Courtney Brink said it’s the memories made along the way that make the trips worth it.
"It's going to be a lifelong memory for us to say that we were here and so close to Tom Brady," said Courtney Brink.
But the Brinks couldn't make this trip happen alone, because this season camp is closed to non-season ticket holders. The Brinks reached out to FOX 13 hoping if their story got out there, someone could help.
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Buccaneers season ticket holder, Austin Follett, saw the Brinks’ story and, along with his wife, decided to offer up their unused training camp tickets to the family.
"I don't even know if they were expecting a response," said Follett. "It's just one of those things where you have an opportunity to help somebody out and make a family experience for them."
It's an experience the Brink family will be sure to remember for years to come.
"We've said thank you 100 times, but we can't say thank you enough to everyone that helped us get in," said Courtney Brink.