Juneau youth becomes talk of the Super Bowl

If Camdyn Clancy’s love of football was sparked four years ago at CenturyLink Field, it was firmly cemented last Sunday at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Juneau third-grader and Seattle Seahawks superfan watched the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams play in Super Bowl LIII in the Atlanta mega stadium.

Clancy, 8, was the grand prize winner of the NFL Play 60 contest which awarded him seats in the fifth row to the game and access to Super Bowl festivities in the week leading up to it, which led to memorable encounters with NFL legends past (Deion Sanders) and present (Tom Brady).

“When he was 5 years old we took him to his first Seahawks game,” Camdyn’s dad, Brent, said. “He wasn’t really into sports but after that game he just fell in love with sports.”

Specifically football.

“Most kids, they like to watch cartoons or play video games,” Brent said. “Camdyn, in his free time, he gets up in the morning and he wants to watch ‘Good Morning Football’ or ESPN.”

As part of the deal, Clancy served as the “kid correspondent” for ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the show that announced Clancy’s contest victory. He did a pretty good job of it, too. His question to Brady — about how he handles his “haters” — went viral on Twitter, and Clancy was recognizable throughout the rest of the week.

“It was the talk of the whole week,” Brent said. “People would just walk up to him and know who he was and want to get his autograph and want to get his picture taken with them. He was eating that up. Anytime somebody would say, ‘Can we have an interview?’ he’d be all over it.”

Despite his calm demeanor on camera, Clancy said he was actually a little anxious about the whole thing.

“At first, when I was going to meet some NFL players, to be honest I was kind of nervous,” Clancy said, “Because these are actually the best stars probably and biggest names in the NFL like Aaron Donald and Tom Brady and James White and I could just throw out more (names) on the teams — Todd Gurley, Jared Goff.”

Later in the week, while appearing on “Good Morning America,” Clancy was suprised by his favorite NFL player, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett.

“It was crazy,” Clancy said. “My favorite NFL player is talking to me, my parents, my uncle.”

What was @nflplay60 Super Kid winner Camdyn Clancy’s favorite memory of Super Bowl week? Meeting @Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett of course! pic.twitter.com/uqzwqWaBUi— Empire Sports (@akempiresports) February 10, 2019

Hannah Clancy said she didn’t think it would be so easy for her son to relate to NFL royalty like Lockett and others he mingled with at the NFL Awards Show.

“I know that my kid is insanely intelligent when it comes to NFL and college football,” Hannah Clancy. “But to be able to put that along with confidently going in front of these famous people and just hold your own? I was blown away every single time. Every single time he impressed me.”

Hannah said she wouldn’t be shocked to see her son wind up in sports broadcasting one day.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this molds his future in some way,” she said.

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• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.

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