KINGSTON — The Kelly family’s route to their second consecutive Super Bowl matches that of the Seahawks — they did what they had to do, didn’t lose confidence, and everything fell into place.
The Kellys — Kimberly and Scott — won the season-ticket holder lottery for the second year in a row and are going to Super Bowl XLIX.
“It’s a long shot to win, because each team gets 17 percent of the tickets for that stadium and there are 60,000 season-ticket holders,” said Kelly, a property appraiser (her husband is a roofing contractor).
They learned shortly after the Seahawks’ victory over the Packers on Jan. 18 that they had won the lottery and, like their team, were headed to Phoenix for the NFL championship. They were in the process of booking a hotel room and, within three minutes of the Patriots’ win over the Colts, the room rate went up by $150 a night. “My husband said, ‘Book it now,’” she said.
The Kellys will stay in Phoenix for a week because they’re flying on Alaska Airlines and for four days there are no flights available, Kelly said.
They only get two tickets, so they’ll buy a ticket for their 8-year-old son, Kaden. “Who gets to cross that off their bucket list at 8 years old?,” Kaden’s mom asked. “He’s had his own season tickets since he was 4. He’s excited, but he doesn’t quite get the magnitude of how awesome it is” to be going to the Super Bowl.
Kelly has been following the Seahawks since she was a teenager, has had season tickets for 11 years, and took her son to his first game when he was 4 months old. But she admits moments of doubt when the Hawks, trying to shake off a mistake-prone first half — were down 19-7 and then were intercepted in mid-fourth quarter.
“I had to leave the room a couple of times,” she said. (The Kellys sold their NFC Championship game tickets so they could watch the game at home with friends.)
But she’s no fair-weather fan. “I thought, ‘We had a good run, we gave it all we had, I’ll be there in August [for preseason],’” Kelly said. “It kind of went back and forth. There was so much negative [play], then all of a sudden there was the fake field goal, then the onside kick, then everything started going in our direction. It was a roller coaster.”
Of those moments when she doubted the Seahawks had enough time to eke out a win, she said, “I know better. It’s not over till it’s over.”
By the way, the Kellys live in Kingston off Parcells Road. Bill Parcells, you may recall, is the NFL Hall of Famer who coached the New York Giants to two Super Bowl wins. Parcells also coached the, um, New England Patriots to a Super Bowl appearance in 1997.
Not that she’s superstitious, but … “Let’s not think about that,” she said.