Meet the fan who may have won himself a date with Genie Bouchard

In a Super Bowl that included the biggest postseason comeback of all time, there’s no doubting that luck had a role to play. The New England Patriots deserved their historic win, but fortune favored them when they needed it most.

That said, Lady Luck didn’t show a single one of Bill Belichick’s footsoldiers the kind of love she gave to John Goehrke on Sunday night. Goehrke – a 20-year-old from Vernon Hills, IL – began the night as a relatively anonymous student based out of Missouri. He ended it as a romantic suitor to Canadian tennis star Eugenie Bouchard.

The bizarre turn of events began when Bouchard tweeted the following as Atlanta beat up on the Patriots during the first half:

The tweet found its way to Goehrke’s timeline as he’d long been a fan of Bouchard’s.

“I first started following Genie when she made her run to the Wimbledon final [in 2014],” he told Yahoo Canada Sports during an interview after the Patriots’ 34-28 win. “I thought it was cool how young she was and I obviously thought she was very attractive.”

It would have been easy enough to leave Bouchard’s relatively innocuous tweet alone, but Goehrke had something different in mind. His response:

“I saw it and thought, ‘This game is not over, what’s the best I could comment back?'” he recalls. “And I thought of that.”

Though he was happy to take his shot, as a reasonable man he had so expectation of receiving an affirmative response.

“I was in shock when I got the notification that she responded ‘Sure,'” he said. “She’s good with her fans and responds a lot – so I did think there was a chance [she’d respond] but not that she’d say ‘Sure.'”

With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Goehrke sat back and enjoyed the most exciting Super Bowl of his life. Watching the game at friend’s apartment, he found himself surrounded by a group blissfully unaware of the game’s enormous stakes for him.

“The people I watched the game with didn’t know,” he said. “I was at my friend’s apartment with his friends and most them I didn’t really know – and also I wasn’t sure if they knew who she was.”

Meanwhile, his spirit rose with every successful Patriots drive.

“When the Patriots made it a two-score game I got very confident,” Goehrke said. “Atlanta looked nervous and Patriots started to look very good.”

With the Patriots rolling, the man who was suddenly their biggest fan couldn’t contain his excitement. It didn’t hurt that he was taking in the game among a clan of New England faithful.

“Every completion I was going nuts,” Goehrke said. “I’m a big Brady fan and everyone watching was rooting for Patriots.”

Like millions around the globe, Goehrke watched in amazement as the Patriots marched up and down the field and forced overtime. When James White scored in the first extra time in Super Bowl history, Goehrke’s fate was sealed.

The logistics of the meeting are fuzzy at the moment, but Goehrke is willing to venture far and wide to have the evening Brady’s heroics afforded him.

“Depending on what happens, I’m down to travel pretty much anywhere,” he said.

As to his plan for winning Bouchard’s heart once he has her on a date …

“Stay tuned.”