Did you hear about the guy who missed his own jumbotron marriage proposal during halftime of the Dolphins-Jets game at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday?
Dolphins fan Luis Llorens had arranged with the Hard Rock's special events team to propose in dramatic fashion to his girlfriend — and Jets fan — Christine Dobrin. But when the big moment arrived, Llorens was nowhere to be found.
The giant screen showed a still photo of the couple with the caption: “Christine. Will you marry me?” But when the Hard Rock's video team switched to the live shot of what was supposed to be the marriage proposal, only Dobrin was seated. Frozen in the moment, she stared at the screen with her hand over her mouth.
“I didn’t know what was going on because he wasn’t at the seats, and looking all around, between the crying and the happiness, I didn’t know where he was, so it was a whole big mix of emotions,” Dobrin told Miami FOX affiliate WSVN.
It turns out that Llorens wasn't suffering from cold feet. He was a victim of poor communications. Llorens mistakenly believed that he was supposed to meet the Hard Rock's video crew in the tunnel just below their seats.
“I was actually there," Llorens told WSVN. "People just don’t realize I was about 25 feet underneath her. I was in the tunnel.”
As soon as he realized the mistake, Llorens rushed to make the best of a bad situation.
"I had to hurry up back to my seat and do what I could do to save this,” said Llorens.
Once he was reunited with his girlfriend, Llorens delivered a proper proposal to the cheers of the well wishers in their section, and then from the whole stadium of fans. You see, the Hard Rock's video crew had followed the action and managed to catch the exact moment of the proposal on the big screen.
Connor Hughes, a writer who covers the Jets for The Atlantic was tweeting about the halftime oddities in real time.
"Amazing," Hughes tweeted. "So they just did a scoreboard proposal here at Hard Rock. However, when they cut away from this graphic to where the two are supposed to be sitting, the guy wasn’t there! Just the girl, sitting there, hand over mouth! Dude must have been in the concession line lol."
Hughes' followers on Twitter enjoyed taking light-hearted jabs at the hapless Llorens, who had yet to tell his side of the story. They presumed that he was preoccupied with halftime snacks or stuck in the bathroom.
For a $500 donation, the Hard Rock Stadium special events team will post a message on the giant screen and then cut to a live shot of guests in their seats. The messages run during the last four minutes of halftime, following the on-field entertainment.
The fee is considered a donation because the funds go to the Miami Dolphins Foundation, which leverages the power of sports and entertainment to inspire a healthier, more educated and united South Florida community.
Credits: Proposal message photo via twitter.com / Connor_J_Hughes; Proposal screen captures via twitter.com / derekdferny.