North Carolina Man Scores Big Lottery Win After His Football Team's Loss

As the age-old saying goes, one person's loss is another's gain. A lucky lottery player in North Carolina proved the idiom right after he scored a huge prize while watching his football team lose.

Jacob Strickland, of Asheboro, was with some friends watching his Clemson Tigers fall short in a matchup against Notre Dame earlier this month when he was inspired to buy a lottery ticket, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery.

"We were watching football with some friends and Clemson was getting beat terribly by Notre Dame," the 29-year-old welder said. "We were joking we should get lottery tickets because our lucky couldn't get any worse."

Strickland followed through on the suggestion, a move which ended up scoring him a six-figure prize after he purchased a Quick Pick Powerball Power Play ticket for the November 5 drawing using Online Play on his phone. His ticket matched four of the white balls called in the drawing as well as the Powerball, earning him $50,000. Thanks to the the 3X multiplier, his prize doubled to $150,000.

"It really was a last-minute thing right before the drawing," he said, adding, "It was just a day of disbelief because I've never won anything before."

So what did his friends think of his win? He sent his buddies a screenshot of his win to share the good news, but they didn't believe him at first, saying, "They all thought I was lying."

Strickland claimed his prize on Tuesday (November 15), taking home $106,516 after all required state and federal tax withholdings. He told lottery officials he plans to invest some of the winnings and put the rest into savings.