A Purdue University student thought he kicked his way to a two-year car lease for making three field goals in a contest held during the Boilermakers’ season opener in West Lafayette. However, the dealership sponsoring the giveaway later reneged on the deal because of a technical. The final kick – a 40-yarder – left his foot just a split second too late on August 31. Car dealerships really cannot help but be bastards, can they?
With a crowd of nearly 60,000 people at Ross-Ade Stadium cheering him on during a timeout, Zachary Spangler made successful kicks from 20, 30 and 40 years on Rohrman Field, according to Automotive News. He thought he just won a free two-year car lease from Rohrman Automotive Group (yes, the field is named after Bob Rohrman – the company’s founder – after the university received a $15 million gift in 2019). However, this all came crashing down on September 5 when Spanger received an email from Trey Rohrman, director of operations at the dealership group, that he only actually won $250 because the video replayed showed the 30-second time had expired before he got the final kick off.
Don’t worry, though. This story has a happy ending. Intense public criticism forced Rohrman’s hand, and Spanger was offered the original lease deal or $5,000 in cash, AutoNews reports. It also mentioned that the competition would have different rules in the future to avoid this issue. To get out of some of the responsibility for this PR fuck up, the group attributed the issue to an insurance company. Whatever you guys say, I guess.
Here’s what Rohrman had to say for itself, according to Automotive News:
“Our goal with this challenge is to have fun, and our intention with these new guidelines should ensure just that,” Rohrman said. “We acknowledge that the process to determine whether or not Zach qualified for the grand prize took too long and his incredible kick should be rewarded. We are committed to an improved and more transparent contest for future games, and we appreciate the public’s scrutiny of the process to help us evolve and make this challenge even better and more fun than ever before.”
The statement said Rohrman Auto also will donate $5,000 toward helping Purdue students travel to away football games.
Unsurprisingly, this move from Rohrman didn’t come without some pushback from the company and Trey themselves, as AutoNews explains:
In a post on LinkedIn, Trey Rohrman said Spangler missed winning the Kicks for Cash contest by 0.07 seconds. He responded to several comments urging the dealership to award the car anyway, saying the stadium announcer incorrectly declared Spangler the winner without time for a review.
”Last year we had 2 kids successfully win a car,” Rohrman replied to one commenter. “I am not sure why so many are having an issue with following rules if such a challenge.”
I’m glad the public was able to get through to him about what a dickhead move this was.
Spanger told the Purdue Exponent – an independent student-run newspaper (which is the best sort of newspaper in existence) – that he wasn’t too broken up about losing out on the car. I think he’s a better man than me. Here’s what he told the paper:
“I have a car here that runs just fine,” he said. “I’m just more upset about how I hit the 40-yarder and they’re saying I didn’t because it came off my foot five-hundredths of a second late.”
The video sent to Spangler shows four angles of him kicking with a 30-second timer at the bottom, according to the Purdue Exponent. The holder places the ball with about 1.5 seconds left on the clock, but Spanger didn’t manage to kick the ball before the clock hit zero. He alleged that the video quality was fairly low and the four camera angles provided weren’t synched with each other.
The Exponent actually brought up a good point about how real football rules would side with Spangler:
[T]he rulebook sides with Spangler.
In all levels of football, if the ball is snapped before the clock expires, the kick counts.
“That would count if you’re 12 years old, up to if you’re 38 years old,” Spangler said.
”I was never told that the ball had to be off my foot before the 30 seconds, because they were just like, ‘Hey, just go out there and kick,’” Spangler said.
Several other car dealerships actually ended up reaching out to Spangler to offer him free car leases as news about the betrayal spread. Curry Automotive in Bloomington said he could drive a Chevy Blazer EV for two years. That deal would have been worth about $15,000.
Sure, this story ended well, and it’s good that the dealership honored its agreement, but it shouldn’t have taken this much public outrage to do so.
