Patrick Mahomes helped pay for a military servicemember’s wedding, he just didn’t know it.  An airman in the Air Force made a bet last year that proved to be much more lucrative than he probably ever imagined.  From just a $200 wager, Airman Nathan Carnahan picked up $8,000, allowing him to have the wedding and honeymoon that otherwise would have never been possible.

Carnahan posted about his unbelievably good fortune on his Twitter feed, explaining, “My Wedding is this Saturday!  I’m active duty military and don’t make a lot of money but Last year I put $200 on Mahomes winning MVP & thanks to him I now have the money to pay for me and @myownisrael [sic] wedding and honeymoon.”

The Air Force surgical technician stationed at Travis Air Force Base in California gave his thanks to Mahomes in closing out the tweet and then shared a copy of his bet ticket.  In May of last year, he took a chance on Mahomes being chosen the 2018 NFL Regular Season MVP and his crystal ball was apparently working.  Despite +4000 odds, Mahomes became the MVP and Carnahan became $8,000 richer.

As a result of his good fortune, the airman and his fiancée are going to get married this Saturday in St. Louis and then head across the Atlantic to Spain.  There, they’re enjoy the country’s tapas and sangria for two weeks before heading back home to reality.

When Carnahan was contacted about his lucky win this week, he stated, “We didn’t come from rich families.  We’re not getting any help from our moms or dads. We’re not getting any financial help from family members. So without this bet, [the reception] would have been a couple people and a keg in the backyard and a honeymoon in Arizona. Now we’ve got a venue and food and a DJ. This helped us afford a real nice wedding instead of a thrown-together thing. And we’re going to Spain for our honeymoon.”

The service member is a die-hard Kansas Chief fan, and this may have influenced his decision, but it was still obviously the right call to make.  He explains that he had a good feeling about the quarterback after seeing how the Chiefs didn’t do much to improve its defense following a weak showing a year earlier, and added, “Free agency was done and the only thing they really did was bring in Sammy Watkins.  My brain told me, ‘Hey, this Chiefs defense is going to be really bad.’ They had [Travis] Kelce, Watkins, [Kareem] Hunt at the time and [Tyreek] Hill. I figured if they were going to win 10, 11, 12 games it was because they were scoring 40 points a game.”

Mahomes ended the season on a high note, only the second player to throw 50 successful touchdown passes and connecting for over 5,000 yards in a single season.  The 6’3” Texas Tech graduate showed he was ready for the big leagues and put on a spectacular performance that made all other quarterbacks look lethargic.  The only possible competition he could have had was from Drew Brees, but the New Orleans Saints quarterback couldn’t quite muster the numbers to take down the award.

As much of a long-shot as Carnahan’s bet was, it was worth every penny.  While there have been other bets that have provided even larger returns, taking out $200 on an airman’s salary is a big deal.  Still, Carnahan says he has one regret from the bet that caused many sleepless nights.  He says that he only wishes he had bet more, adding, “You win some and you lose some.”