NFL fan goes from fantasy to nightmare to dream

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NFL fan Cameron Pettigrew is delighted to be at the Super Bowl this week, although he never would have chosen the path he took to get here.

Pettigrew, 27, who lives in Grapevine, Texas, came to Florida courtesy of a fantasy-football league after he was fired from his job at Fidelity Investments because, he said, he received the equivalent of a text message at work related to his role as organizer of a different fantasy league.

‘It was something about having [Buffalo’s] Trent Edwards as my quarterback,’ he said. ‘That was about it. They called me down to an office where some men in suits interrogated me about fantasy football. The next thing I knew, I was fired the next day.’

Pettigrew said he was a model employee who had not received a written or verbal warning and the firing ‘came out of nowhere.’

The unusual firing made headlines, and the story attracted the attention of Dustin Ashby, commissioner of the World Championship of Fantasy Football league. That league paid for Pettigrew’s promotional trip to Florida, and waived his $1,000 entry fee to the league’s 2010 Main Event draft in Las Vegas.

Ashby wouldn’t say whether the league had a ticket for Pettigrew to attend the Super Bowl game.

Pettigrew, meanwhile, was happy to simply make the trip to Florida and said he has bigger concerns than Colts-Saints.

‘I’ve had some lawyers contact me, but I’m not sure that’s something I want to go after,’ he said. ‘I’m not trying to get rich off of this or get famous. Frankly, I just want another job.’

-- Sam Farmer