Very Cool! Meet Montana’s Nominee for NFL Fan of the Year

It was a pretty eventful NFL season that just wrapped up with the Super Bowl over the weekend. And for Griz fans, the Super Bowl MVP turned out to be a bit of a familiar face. How familiar? How about "he played for a Big Sky Conference rival and played multiple times inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium" kind of familiar? You just never know who you'll see playing on Saturdays that could end up doing big things on Sundays.

But back to the NFL.....

Did you know the NFL crowns a Fan of the Year at their end-of-the-year awards celebration? Not only that but the winner is chosen from a pool of finalists where one person is chosen to represent each of the 32 NFL teams. Of course, not every state has an NFL team but the contest is open to everyone. With Montana not having an NFL franchise we usually tend to see loyalty in the direction of the Denver Broncos or Seattle Seahawks. But a Montana man was chosen as an NFL Fan of the Year nominee and he's actually a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. (Ew, gross! But that's just this writer's opinion. 😆)

You can't spell fanatic without fan

Chase Smith lives in Belgrade, MT, and moved to the state when he was 10 years old. He brought his love of the Dallas Cowboys with him and being a fan of the team kept Chase close to his family back in Texas. How crazy to think that all these years later he would be picked as the Dallas Cowboys Fan of the Year while living 1,500 miles away from where the team calls home.

A family running 4 generations deep, Chase plans to continue the family tradition by instilling the same passion and fandom for the Dallas Cowboys with his own young son so he can experience the comradery and love that make the Dallas Cowboys truly America's Team. -NFL.com-

What an awesome experience!

In addition to the video above where Chase gets a visit from former NFL star Victor Cruz, he attended a Cowboys game that included things like meeting former Dallas Cowboys players, being presented a custom Fan of the Year jersey, meeting a few of the famous Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, and being awarded Super Bowl tickets. Not too shabby!

Bummer.....not NFL Fan of the Year

The NFL Honors are held at the end of the NFL season and it's where they award things like the Coach of the Year, MVP, and Rookie of the Year. You might have guessed that it's also where they announce the NFL Fan of the Year. Chase Smith wasn't able to bring that award back to Montana as the winner was the person chosen to represent the Atlanta Falcons. But still, what an amazing story to tell for one Montana man!