NorCal Packers Fan Wins Super Bowl Trip After Seeing Her Team Fumble Away Its Chance
SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) -- Life has been good for Jen Naruo since her Wisconsin roots led her to cheering for the Packers before she was even out of diapers. The early days spent scribbling Brett Favre's name on her school binder were a prelude to the glorious Super Bowl beating handed down to the Patriots, along with the 2010 upset of the Steelers in the big game.
However, Naruo feared her luck was running out after the Packers' consecutive playoff losses to the 49ers and this year's disaster, a sure-thing Super Bowl trip fumbled away in the NFC Championship Game.
She was wrong.
Under her handle, @wisconsin_Brat, Naruo was live-tweeting her stress during the Packers-Seahawks title game from her current home in Sacramento as her team built a 12-point lead with just over two minutes remaining in the contest.
Just in case I have to take some aggression out during the game. #GBvsSEA #Packers #BEATTHESEAHAWKS pic.twitter.com/doPaurp2p5
— Jen Naruo (@Wisconsin_Brat) January 18, 2015
Rodgers is 9-2 on games with winds over 15mph and a 98 passer rating. we got this. #Packers #GetLoudLambeau #GBvsSEA
— Jen Naruo (@Wisconsin_Brat) January 18, 2015
Surrounded by fellow Packers fans, five flat-screen televisions and bevy of unhealthy treats, Naruo shot out a picture of her fried cheese curds in hopes that they would top off a triumphant day for the Wisconsinite.
A Packer party isn't complete w/o cheese curds & a roll of @Bounty Yummy=messy
— Jen Naruo (@Wisconsin_Brat) January 17, 2015
Bounty=clean #BountyNFLPrintsContest pic.twitter.com/XWNwX1j9Ni
Her team's Super Bowl dreams melted like a block of Wisconsin cheddar, but the hashtag she threw on the tweet actually put Nauro on her own course for the game. She won an all-expenses-paid trip to Arizona to watch the biggest sporting event this side of the World Cup played by two teams she doesn't even like very much.
"When you watch your team go down in one of the worst losses you've ever seen and then you wake up the next morning to learn you won a trip to the Super Bowl, the first thought is 'are you kidding me right now?!" Naruo recalled. "Then immediately followed by, 'This isn't really happening. Nobody actually wins this stuff.'"
But she did win - tickets, a flight, hotel and some spending money. She heads out for the long weekend Friday morning.
Congratulations to @Wisconsin_Brat and @erikmwalker, winners of the #BountyNFLPrintsContest! Enjoy your trip to #SBXLIX
— Bounty (@Bounty) January 26, 2015
Now Naruo is faced with a decision that torments her more than a Favre retirement press conference: who do I root for once I'm there?
"I usually like to root for the team that beats my team so that I can say we lost to the best, but not this time," said Naruo. "I hate the Seahawks. The Patriots are the lesser of two evils, so it looks like I'll be cheering for them."
Who is she taking as her guest? Her husband, Berkeley firefighter Mike Stefanac, who happens to be a Lions fan. Safe to say he won't have a lot of other chances to cheer at the Super Bowl.