Thompson's dreams, at least the ones that involve money, have a better chance of coming true than most thirty-three year old stay-at-home dads. Especially those staying home and studying in hopes of becoming a police officer. Yesterday, Thompson became an instant millionaire in tournament fishing - all without having to wet a line.
Living the dream. Michael Thompson holds the $1 million check he says will bring his family closer to their dreams. He's the first-ever $1 million winner in the FLW Fantasy Fishing competition, and he edged that victory out by an extremely narrow margin - 32,101 points to 31,699 points (sounds like a cricket score) over second-place finisher James Brown of Lodi, California. That tiny margin is smaller than the single ounce that occasionally decides bass tournaments.
"This is unbelievable, I simply can't believe it…it's a dream come true!" said Thompson, who really is an avid bass angler. "I simply started playing FLW Fantasy Fishing because I love fishing and because it was fun. We have a lot of dreams and this will help us make many of them come true."
And what will he do with $1 million? Thompson and his wife, Penny, say they'll pay off Thompson's Ranger Z20 bass boat, buy Penny a new car, and start thinking about building a new home on a piece of land that they've dreamed about buying for many years.
The FLW's Fantasy Fishing game didn't get a terrific amount of attention (at least not from me) when it launched this year. After all, there were plenty of fantasy sports games, and I admittedly felt this one would be lost in the shuffle. Instead, the interest in the game has built over the year, as $100,000 (the top prize in FLW tournaments) was awarded not once, but seven times to individual winners. $700,000 into the game, it was safe to say the entire fantasy sports world noticed.
The brain - and bucks -behind the game is Irwin Jacobs, chairman of FLW Outdoors, and it's safe to say he's come a long way since I first met him in the 1980s when he was known as "Irwin the Liquidator". Today, he's almost as proud of his FLW as he is of his family - and that's saying something.
"When we started FLW Outdoors," Jacobs says, "I dreamed about the biggest payday in bass fishing, when the champion of the Forrest Wood Cup could claim the first $1 million prize in bass fishing. Fifteen years later, we achieved my personal goal of awarding $1 million to our Forrest Wood Cup champion, not once, but as of last Sunday, two years in a row."
Now, Jacobs says he has another goal, to create more Michael Thompsons who will become millionaires in the years to come.
So what's Thompson going to do with that newly-acquired wealth? Pay off his Ranger Z70 bass boat, buy Penny a new car, and "start thinking about building a new home" on a piece of land they say they've dreamed about buying "for many years."
It seems only appropriate that as of last weekend, the competition was still up for grabs. Thompson, an admitted stat watcher, iced the payday when he picked 24-year old Michael Bennett from Lincoln, California to win.
He did, and picked up his own $1 million check from Jacobs last Sunday. Yesterday, however, it was Bennett's turn to hand a $1 million check to someone else. Bennett says he thinks the Fantasy Fishing game will bring new fans to the sport.
Yesterday's announcement wasn't a winner-take-all competition. Second place finisher James Brown, 26, picked up a new Ranger boat and Yamaha engine package valued at $52,000. Earlier this year, he picked up a $5,000 Wal-Mart gift card - which he says was used to buy things for his eight-month-old daughter. Now, Brown says, he has a new Ranger boat and will sell his older Z20.
There were thirteen other winners in the finals, and each went home with a pretty good payday, although they certainly weren't a million bucks:
3rd place: Mr. Steve Reed (Davis, California)-- Chevy Silverado truck, valued at $40,000.
4th place: Mr. Carl Trussell, (Orange, Texas) -- Ranger Reata boat powered with an Evinrude Engine, valued at $36,000.
5th place: Mr. Steve Braun, (Hartland, Wisconsin)-- $25,000 Walmart Gift Card, presented by Proctor & Gamble
6th place: Mr. Tim Potoczny (Gurnee, Illinois)-- $20,000 US Savings Bond, presented by the National Guard
7th place: Mr. Jim Stallard (Wilmington, North Carolina) -- $20,000 BP Gas Card
8th place: Ms. Dixie Canterbury (Odenville, Alabama) -- $15,000 Walmart Gift Card, presented by Snickers
9th place: Mr. Jeff Nelson (New Brighton, Minnesota) -- $10,000 Walmart Gift Card, presented by Castrol
10th place: Ms. Madge Austin (Elmhurst, Pennsylvania) -- $10,000 Walmart Gift Card, presented by Land O' Lakes
11th place: Mr. Peyote Perryman (Raleigh, North Carolina) -- $10,000 Walmart Gift Card, presented by Berkley
12th place: Mr. Gary McMullin, (Overland Park, Kansas) -- $10,000 Walmart Gift Card, presented by Kellogg's
13th place: Mr. Ron James (Oshawa, Ontario) -- $8,000 US Bank Cashier's Check
14th place: Mr. Brent Meyer (Crawfordville, Florida) -- Yahama Grizzly 450 Hunter All-Terrain Vehicle, valued at $8,000.
15th place: Mr. Ken Sessions (Pace, Florida) -- Can-Am Outlander 400 All-Terrain Vehicle, valued at $8,000.
