When Richard Sherman tipped a pass to Earl Thomas in the end zone for the fifth — and final — interception for the Legion of Boom on Sunday, Seattle Seahawks fans everywhere went berzerk. Well, everyone except for the owners of Jet Chevrolet in Federal Way, situated just a few miles south of Seattle. Jet ran a shutout promotion in the days leading up to Sunday’s game, offering to split a $420,000 jackpot among twelve fans if the Seahawks managed to blank the Giants. With a few minutes left and the Giants in position to score at least a garbage-time field goal, it appeared Jet would be off the hook. That is, until Eli Manning went Full Eli Manning, tossing the pick that essentially sealed the dealer’s fate.
As lucky as the twelve winners are to receive individual payouts of $35,000, Jet was doubly unlucky with the timing of the promotion. Co-owner Jim Johnson said they initially planned to offer it for last week’s game against the San Francisco 49ers, which the Seahawks lost 19-17. Johnson said they had to push the promotion back a week in order to make sure it checked out with state regulations.
One concession they made was opening the promotion to everyone — not just customers — so they tweaked the offer (it ran Wednesday through Saturday), limiting non-customers to one entry, while car-buying customers were entered 100 times. Considering a used car sells for as little as $1,000 on their lot, the payout could potentially be quite hefty. Still, Jet had history on their side: the Giants hadn’t been shut out at home since Week 1 of the 1995 season, and the Seahawks hadn’t shut out an opponent on the road since 2005 (a 42-0 curbstomping of the Eagles in Philadelphia).
The winners will be drawn Monday from a pool of 20 car buyers, and twelve non-buyers. The one silver lining for Jet is that they (wisely) insured the jackpot, which cost them roughly $7,000.
[ESPN]
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