Super Bowl 45 trip winners: A homeless couple is going to Big D

Ouida Wright and her boyfriend Aaron are Super Bowl bound after winning a Facebook contest held by the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau (DCV).

The couple, who had only 90-cents in their pocket, won two tickets to the game, hotel accommodations, and travel expenses from the DCV, according to Fox11 in Green Bay.

You’re probably starting to wonder how a homeless couple won a contest involving Facebook.

The Dallas organization explained the rules of the contest as releasing a secret phrase to participants and sending a DCV official to walk the streets of Green Bay.

The secret phrase was, “Have you been to Dallas lately?” The first person to repeat the phrase to the official would win the Super Bowl trip. According to FOX:

[…] on Saturday, Wright and her boyfriend left a local soup kitchen to walk around downtown for the Winterfest on Broadway event. After being approached by others who were looking for the “mystery man,” the couple caught on to what the contest was all about. The fourth person they uttered the secret phrase to revealed himself the “mystery man,” and them as the winners of the giveaway.

“I’m homeless and thought somebody was messing with me. Then we saw the cameras,” Wright told Sunday’s Good Day Wisconsin.

The Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau will also pay for the couple’s airfare, which will allow them to actually enjoy the benefits of the prize package.

That’s a damn good prize. Almost as good as the $3,500 Besy Buy card a homeless man received for winning ESPN’s Fantasy Football contest!

From Yahoo! Sports’ MJD:
Obviously, Nathan Harrington, 33, of Salem, Mass., knows something I don’t. Harrington ended up homeless after needing back surgery, going on medical leave from his job, and being forced to leave his home because it was condemned.

And still, he was better than over 3 million people at fantasy football.

He used computers at his father’s nursing home, his mother’s house, and the library. He knocked on neighbors’ doors and asked if he could use their computers.

If you’re wondering about specifics, Harrington drafted Arian Foster(notes) and picked up Brandon Lloyd(notes) as a free agent. He made trades for Adrian Peterson and Dwayne Bowe(notes).

Oddly, Tony Romo(notes) was his quarterback, but when Romo went down with a season-ending injury, Harrington had to make due with a string of borderline fantasy quarterbacks. He clinched the top spot behind Tim Tebow’s surprising Week 17 performance against the Chargers. From The Salem News:

“My fantasy football was the one thing that kind of seemed to be going right at the time,” Harrington said. “There was a lot to be upset about, but the one thing that was steady and heading in a positive direction was the fantasy football. So I thought I might as well stick with it and ride it out. Thank God I did.”

 

Harrington sold the Best Buy card to his mother for $2,500 cash.