Q&A with David Gaston, $1 million winner of ESPN.com’s Primetime Payoff MNF Pick ‘Em Game

Centennial, Colo. native David Gaston rang in 2013 with $1 million worth of winnings in his pocket*, thanks to ESPN’s pick ‘em game based on the events of Monday Night Football (MNF), ESPN Primetime Payoff presented by Best Buy.

The 23-year-old was randomly selected as the winner when his 33 points earned him 33 chances to win the grand prize.

Front Row spoke to Gaston about his big win:

How did you first hear about ESPN Primetime Payoff?
I read about the ESPN Primetime Payoff game while playing fantasy football on ESPN.com. I read through it and the game sounded like it would be fun to play during Monday Night Football games, so I decided to register and play.

There were some entries that had as many as 245 points. With your 33 points, did you ever think you’d be the one randomly selected for the grand prize of $1 million?

No, I never would have dreamed that I would have won the million dollars. I was literally shocked when I was contacted by ESPN about it. It’s been about a week since I found out about the winning and I still don’t feel like it is real. Having a 33-out-of-14.5 million chance was extremely unrealistic and I never would have guessed I would be the one to walk away with the money. I consider myself extremely blessed and extremely lucky to have had such good fortune come my way.

What’s the first thing you plan to buy with your prize money?
Well, I have a lot of family who live in Ireland and it has always been a big dream for my family to go out there for a few weeks and visit our relatives and just have some fun, so I think I will do that first. I’m also a huge Broncos fan and if they go to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, I plan on attending and watching Peyton Manning and Von Miller lead us to an NFL Championship.

* Pending review of his entry for eligibility and authentication.