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This article was published 14/7/2017 (1164 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Karen Kuldys was scooping french fries at the A&W when the commissioner of the Canadian Football League called.

Now 59, that's what Kuldys does each workday: Waking up at 4:30, arriving an hour later at the fast-food restaurant where she's worked for 30 years, and starts prepping; chopping lettuce, tomatoes and onions.

Then she starts cooking.

Friday morning was different. After all, the Winnipeg resident had just spent the night tossing and turning after a controversial call during a Winnipeg Blue Bombers game Thursday night cost her $1 million.

Kuldys' name had been drawn in the Safeway/Sobeys $1,000,000 Touchdown to Win contest — where if any two kickoffs are returned for touchdowns during the game she would win a million dollars.

JUSTIN SAMANSKI-LANGILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Karen Kuldys outside her home Friday. Kuldys was set to win $1 million during last night's Blue Bombers game when a controversial penalty call in the second quarter cost her the prize.

Sure enough, Bombers' Ryan Lankford ran the opening kick-off back 105 yards for a TD, earning Kuldys a $25,000 home theatre package from Visons Electronics. In the second quarter, the Argos' Martese Jackson returned a kickoff 109 yards for another TD — only to have the play nullified by an illegal block penalty called on the play.

Almost immediately, fans across Canada — realizing what the penalty had cost Kuldys — began twitter hashtags #WhatAboutKaren and #PoorKaren. Even TSN analysts devoted much of the halftime show to lamenting what they described as a bad call on the field.

Kuldys and her husband Stan, who have been married 37 years, were watching the action unfold on TV at home. Their love of football had long since been established: Their second date was a Bombers game.

"Well, I would only marry a guy who loves sports," Kuldys reasoned. "My dad goes back to the Leo Lewis days. When we were kids, my dad watched the football and we had to crawl under the TV, you know with the rabbit ears. You couldn't walk in front of it."

Anyway, at first Kuldys thought if Jackson scored, she would only be eligible to win the million, as if her name would be put in a draw. She did realize in the moment the ramifications of the play.

"If I would have known, when Jackson was running, I would have ran with him," she said. "I would have been blocking."

So, no, she didn't sleep well Thursday night. "I guess because I was one bad call away from a million dollars," she explained.

Also, it would have meant her daughter, now on maternity leave, would have more time to spend with her baby before returning to her job at, ironically, the Superstore.

But she showed up the next morning at dawn, like always, when CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie tracked her down at the A&W. It was a condolence call of sorts, but with parting gifts from the league: free flights and hotel accomodations for Kuldys and Stan — along with son Ryan and daughter Michelle — to the Grey Cup this November in Ottawa.

The trip includes access to all VIP events that week, the Comissioner's brunch, VIP pre-game party in the Commissioner's suite and seating at the game.

"We’re all fans and whatever team you root for, we would all love to see a CFL fan win a million dollars," Ambrosie said, in a statement. "So we all feel for Karen and what she must have gone through last night, and what she must still be feeling today."

"It was pretty awesome," Kuldys allowed, of the phone call.

Bombers president and CEO Wade Miller sweetened the pot with season tickets for the rest of the Bombers season and next year, too. Kuldys was pumped about the Bombers tickets. "When is the next game?" she asked a reporter. Versus the Alouettes on July 27th, she was informed.

Also on Friday, Safeway/Sobeys announced that, in addition to the $25,000 home theatre package, they will provide Kuldys with free groceries for one year. Then Air Miles Canada offered Kuldys 500,000 free Air Miles, a value of $50,000.

Not bad.

"I was very thankful," Kuldys reasoned. "It's not a million dollars, but still... walking down Portage Avenue after work there's people who are down and out. I have a home in Windsor Park, beautiful kids and a good husband. I mean, come on, you have to put it in perspective.

"But then...."

There's those mixed emotions again. In fact, Kuldys openly admits that the Jackson kick return will be on her mind "probably for the rest of my life."

"I'll be an old, old lady," she said, only half-joking, "and I'll be telling people who don't even want to hear me at bingo, 'Oh, I almost won a million dollars.'"

Although it's worth noting that the Kuldys' have also been on the other side of luck. Back in 2007, Stan won $675,000 in the PayDay lottery.

Karen explained: "The story behind that one was I had a craving for Chinese food that night and he (Stanley) was good enough to hop in the car and go down to St. Marys and get me Marigolds. And on the way there he decided to get a lottery ticket. That's the ticket he won on."

Of course, that didn't help Karen Kuldys sleep any better on Thursday night. But she's been a Bombers fan all her life, so maybe she should have known.

You can't win them all.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @randyturner15