Dominic Mirabella has a shot at winning $1 million this Sunday. "It’s funny how surreal it is…while still being exciting," says Mirabella, a resident of Royal Oak.
He says he made a joke of his 'undefeated' season early on, but around Thanksgiving he realized he really had a shot at winning.
Mirabella has been picking four NFL game winners every week using an phone app called FourPlay. He's had a perfect season, and if he correctly picks the Super Bowl winner, he will win $1 million. He hasn't revealed whether he's going with the New England Patriots or Atlanta Falcons, and he has until Sunday at 1pm to make his selection.
Even with so much on the line, Mirabella says he doesn't have big plans to watch the game.
"I reduced some of a the stress by declining an offer to go to Vegas with FourPlay. I don’t think I'd be very much fun to be around. We’re just going to be locked in the man cave, wife and kids, keeping the routine the same and try not to jinx it at this point," says Mirabella.
He says he's had his wife's support all season long.
"Saturdays and Sundays are sort of sacred days in the fall for us," Mirabella explains.
For Mirabella, one of the best parts of this whole journey is the fact that the FourPlay app was created by two local entrepreneurs from Birmingham; C.J. Karchon and Jeff Johnson. Johnson says he likes that the winner could be a local guy.
"85 per cent of our users are scattered all over the country, so to have a local company, and our winner potentially to be someone that lives right down the street is just really cool. it just couldn’t happen to a better guy. He's somebody who is centered around giving back," Johnson says of Mirabella.
Mirabella works in financial services, but he also likes to volunteer in his spare time. Most notable, he is a volunteer at Camp Casey: a nonprofit horseback riding program for kids battling cancer.
The odds of picking every game right and winning the million dollar prize are about 1 in 5 million, but Mirabella is now just one game away from doing it.
