It doesn’t seem like there is anything that is going to stop the Seattle Seahawks this season, especially the New York Giants’ offense. The Seahawks blew away the Giants Sunday morning, 23-0, at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey. The victory moved Seattle to 12-2 and one step closer to clinching home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
But Sunday’s shutout by the Seahawks’ defense was just a little more meaningful to 12 fans who entered a contest at Federal Way’s Jet Chevrolet last week. The car dealership is set to give 12 lucky customers $35,000 today.
Jet Chevrolet had a promotion that if the Seahawks shut out the Giants, 12 people would split $420,000 equally.
“Watching the game was definitely nerve-racking,” said Jim Johnson, one of the owners of the dealership on Enchanted Parkway South. “As a Seahawks fan, you want them to win. And for it to come down to the end to get the shutout, it was pretty incredible.”
It looks as if the Giants and Eli Manning were going to score a late, meaningless touchdown in the fourth quarter, therefore nullifying the $420,000 payout. Midway through that final quarter, New York drove the ball to the Seahawks’ 13-yard line, But Manning threw his fifth interception of the game to Earl Thomas in the end zone with 4:17 remaining in the game, preserving the shutout.
“That interception was incredible,” said Johnson, who watched the game at home with his family. “After that, my phone started ringing and it was craziness.”
Following the game, Johnson drove to Jet Chevrolet and there were actually people coming into the dealership wanting to sign up for the promotion.
“Since it’s happened, the hype has been crazy,” said Johnson, who has given numerous interviews to ESPN and other national organizations.
According to Johnson, Jet Chevrolet took out an insurance policy on the shutout money giveaway. Instead of the $420,000, it cost Jet about $7,000.
The contest ran from Wednesday to Saturday and was open to anyone who came into Jet Chevrolet and signed up, even those who didn’t buy a car. Those who bought a car, however, received 100 entries into the drawing, others received one entry.
According to Johnson, 20 people actually bought a car during the four-day window, ranging from $1,000 to $60,000.
The drawing for the 12 $35,000 prizes is set for sometime today. Johnson and Jet Chevrolet is still working out the details with the insurance company.
It was Seattle’s first shutout since a 58-0 blowout over Arizona on Dec. 9 last year. The last time the Giants were shut out at home in the regular season was week one of the 1995 season, when they lost to the Dallas Cowboys 35-0.
Johnson originally wanted to do the shutout promotion last week when the Seahawks played the San Francisco 49ers, but he said working out the rules to make sure the giveaway was legal and in accordance with state regulations pushed it back a week.
“We were just trying to get it done right,” he said.
According to ESPN, shutout giveaways in NFL games are pretty popular endeavors.
But the last time one of them actually worked was back in 2006, when World Furniture Mall in Illinios, gave away about $300,000 worth of furniture because it promised to cover consumer purchases up to $10,000 each made during the season-opening weekend if the Chicago Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers, which they did 26-0.
One of the costliest came in October 1999, when the Kansas City Chiefs’ shutout of the San Diego Chargers resulted in electronic retailer BrandsMart giving away $425,000 worth of items, according to ESPN.
