Poor Genie Bouchard. After betting a Vernon Hills man that she’d date him if the Patriots pulled off a comeback in the Super Bowl, the Canadian tennis star looked shell-shocked in a photo she tweeted Monday after they indeed rallied.
New England erased a 28-3 deficit and beat the Falcons in overtime, 34-28, on Sunday.
"Omg…last night really happened…," she wrote.
She couldn’t have been more stunned, though, than John Goehrke, the 20-year-old University of Missouri junior who’s majoring in marketing. When asked how he was feeling, he told Inc., "Pretty good. Very good. I’m in shock."
Bouchard confirmed Monday afternoon that she’ll make good on her wager with Goehrke. "Lol it made a Twitter moment. And I will do it, I stay true to my word," she tweeted.
You could wag your finger and warn about never betting on Falcons before they’ve hatched, but who could blame Bouchard? At one point, the Falcons’ win probability reached 99.6 percent, according to ESPN and Fox Sports. She even boasted, "I knew Atlanta would win btw."
So when some random fan asked, "if patriots win we go on a date?" Bouchard replied, "Sure."
"I saw the tweet and I’m like, I wasn’t assuming the game was over because I knew how good the Patriots were and how good Tom Brady was, but I was like, I don’t think this is over," said Goehrke, a Rams fan who also roots for Brady. "I thought it would be funny to comment something just to say whatever, like, ‘You’re crazy if you think this is over.’ … But then I thought I could have more fun with it and do something else, so I thought of that."
Then the reality of what Bouchard had done set in — for both of them. During the rally, a fan asked if she was getting nervous. "Umm…kinda," she replied. Goehrke recalled, "Everything was in my head at once. I couldn’t believe, one, that they were coming back to win, or, two, that this (date) could actually happen."
Finally, resigned to the outcome, Bouchard tweeted Goehrke, "So…where do you live?"
A gleeful Goehrke responded, "Chicago. Go to school in Missouri. We can go on a date where ever you want!"
Bouchard added on Twitter, "Lesson learned. Never bet against Tom Brady."
Goehrke said that as of Monday afternoon, none of Bouchard’s representatives had contacted him. Right now, he’s trying to think of Chicago restaurants and other spots where he would take her.
"Honestly, if I’m even lucky enough for it to happen and I meet her, that would be good enough," he said. "Depending on where she wants to meet or what she wants to do, I’m going to try to take her to dinner. See what happens."
plthompson@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @_phil_thompson
Photos from Super Bowl LI on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2017, at NRG Stadium in Houston.
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