Rob Gronkowski and former offensive tackle Matt Light joined forces to raise funds for charity and send two lucky winners to the Super Bowl.
Gronkowski and Light hosted a raffle for the MetLife Foundation and anyone who donated was entered to win a trip to Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII.
“I bought some raffle tickets. I figured it was a good cause,” Anthony Balestrieri, one of the raffle winners, said. “They had a whole Super Bowl package, I never thought there was ever a chance of winning.”
Despite not believing he would win, Balestrieri received the lucky call, but Light decided to have a little fun first.
“Yesterday, at about 3 o’clock, I got a phone call saying my credit card had been compromised from donating to this raffle,” Balestrieri said. “After going back and forth, the guy on the other end says, ‘Tony, this is Matt Light, you’re going to the Super Bowl.'”
Now, Balestrieri is taking home the whole package and enjoying his time in Atlanta.
“We got the tailgate tickets, here’s the game tickets, and taste of the NFL tickets,” Balestrieri said. “It was incredible, absolutely incredible.”
The money raised for the raffle was all to support local charities.
“We had hundreds of thousands of people do this raffle, we did so well with it,” Steve Difillippo, who helped Light and Gronkowski with the raffle, said. “All of that money went to charity.”
Reality for Balestrieri has yet to set in.
“It doesn’t feel real. I kept saying once I got here, it would feel real, but it doesn’t feel real now.”
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)