Ballard resident Stephanie Lagervall received an all-expenses paid trip to the Super Bowl in Detroit, MI after winning a radio station contest.
Lagervall had made numerous calls to KISS 106.9 FM and finally got through as the 12th caller on January 27.
"I had a picture of Matt Hasselbeck and kissed it for good luck," said Lagervall.
Four days later the station telephoned her with the good news. She not only won end zone tickets to the game, she has got a free hotel room and passes to VIP events.
After that, she was offered $15,000 for her tickets, hotel package and VIP pass but turned it down. Instead, she took her brother Mike to the game. He taught his sister the game of football and works as a FedEx driver in Ballard.
Once in Detroit, Lagervall wore her bright green Seahawks hat, her 12th man jersey and waved her pom pom to get the attention of the producers of the Best Damn Sports Show on ESPN. They asked her to be in their live television audience.
During the show, she met National Football League Hall of Famer Lynn Swan and Cadillac Williams, the NFL's Rookie of the Year from Tampa Bay.
Meanwhile Lagervall kept getting calls on her cell phone from friends back home who saw her on television.
Next for Stephanie and Mike were visits to the NFL Experience and Motown Winter Blast events thanks to their VIP pass.
"Everyone was real nice. The security was great, they made people feel safer," said Lagervall.
The game itself was not much fun. Ushers told the Lagervalls that Pittsburgh Steeler fans outnumbered Seahawk fans at least 100 to 1 in the stands and the Lagervalls were surrounded Steelers in the audience, with young fans harassing them.
"We were called some bad things," Lagervall said.
But some older Steeler fans came to their defense. "They did not want anyone ruining our experience," said Lagervall.
While the Pittsburgh fans did not ruin the game, the officials may have.
"It was hard to watch. I did not agree with a lot of the calls. Even some Steeler fans did not agree with it (the call)," said Lagervall.
"After the game we high tailed it out of there. We did not want to see them handed the trophy."
Both Lagervalls wanted to vent their frustrations, but could not find any Seahawk fans after the game.
All they found were Steeler fans. "During the day the fans were nice. At night, they were intoxicated and confrontational," said Lagervall.
When they got to the airport to go back home , they finally ran into some Seahawk fans. "It was nice to have that camaraderie we were looking for all that time," said Lagervall.
Lagervall's favorite player is Lofa Tatupu, the rookie linebacker who made the Pro Bowl.
"I love Tatup, the way he can get the defense together, that take charge attitude," she said.
"It was a once in a lifetime experience," said Lagervall.