During Super Bowl week, 10-year-old Ava Childs met Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie and Green Bay kicker Mason Crosby. She also played a little flag football with the Dallas Cowboys.
Ava, from Glen Ellyn, Ill., was chosen out of 17,000 kids to win the NFL Play 60 Super Bowl Contest.
USA WEEKEND teamed up with the NFL to encourage young people to get active for an hour each day and submit essays about how they do it. In her entry, Ava wrote about how Chicago Bears kicker Robbie Gould inspires her to be fit, what she and her family do to stay active, that she actually likes broccoli, and that she hopes to be the first female kicker in the NFL.
As the winner, she got a taste of the NFL life while in Dallas, including hanging out with Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith and others. The highlight: walking the game ball to the referee during the Super Bowl pregame before a huge crowd.
“There were like thousands!” says Ava, who admits she was nervous at first. “It was just a really cool experience.”
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