Circa Survivor entry in final 4 for $9.2M after making wrong pick

Greg Jones’ mother died the week before Thanksgiving.

“And Thanksgiving was kind of her holiday,” the Los Angeles resident said.

Jones was still in a daze when he submitted his Circa Survivor selection for the separate Thanksgiving week on his contest proxy’s website.

“I was kind of a zombie when I put in my pick online,” he said. “I meant to take Detroit but took Green Bay.”

Believing he had selected the Lions, Jones said he bet enough on the Packers on the live line to pay for his four $1,000 Survivor entries after Green Bay beat Detroit 29-22.

It wasn’t until he got a call two days later from Tom Carroll, his proxy (Vegasfootballproxy.com), asking for his next pick that he realized he had inadvertently survived.

“I said, ‘I’m out; I had Detroit,’” Jones said. “And he said, ‘No, you must have clicked the wrong button. You had Green Bay.’”

Jones, whose contest alias is Lajoneser, now has one of the final four entries from the field of 9,267 still alive for the $9.2 million prize. He can’t help but think his late mother had something to do with his fateful pick.

“It’s weird,” he said. “I’m not religious or one of those spiritual people. But it feels like something’s connected.”

Close call with hometown team

Longtime friends Kyle Motes and Corey Menter split one Survivor entry they named Jax Jags that also is in the final four. The Jacksonville, Florida, natives survived several close calls along the way and avoided elimination by not taking the Jaguars in Week 3.

“We were about to take the Jaguars at home over the Texans,” Motes said. “And Corey, being the bigger Jaguars fan, said something just didn’t feel right. … and the Jaguars ended up losing. So that might have saved our season right there.

“We’ve had a lot of luck along the way, which I think if anyone’s being honest, this is a contest that probably requires 80 percent to 90 percent luck.”

Bounced early last year

Jax Jags and Lajoneser were eliminated early from Survivor last season before reaching the final four this year.

Motes and Menter, who both work in the financial industry, lost both of their Survivor entries in Week 1 last year when the 49ers lost to the Bears and the Broncos lost to the Seahawks.

Jones, who runs a TV commercial production company, lost his two Survivor entries in brutal fashion last season in the first two weeks. First, he was knocked out when the Colts tied the Texans in Week 1. Then he was eliminated when the Browns blew a 13-point lead in the final 1:55 in a loss to the Jets after Nick Chubb scored a touchdown instead of sliding to run out the clock.

Last week, when six of the final 10 were eliminated when the Broncos lost at home to the Patriots, Jones survived with the Bears, and Motes and Menter advanced with the Packers.

“I took the Bears because I figured a bunch of people were going to be on Denver,” Jones said.

Green Bay appeared to be cruising to a win over Carolina with a 14-point fourth-quarter lead before making Motes and Menter sweat.

The Panthers rallied for two touchdowns to tie the score at 30 with 4:05 left. The Packers then drove for a go-ahead 32-yard field goal with 19 seconds left. But it still wasn’t over. Bryce Young completed a pass to Adam Thielen at the Green Bay 31, but Carolina couldn’t spike the ball before time expired.

“It was rough … seeing the contest slip out of your hands every time the Panthers moved the ball,” Motes said.

While one entry, Circus Master, had the Browns available to use Thursday night as 7½-point home favorites over the Jets, the other three entries will have to use a favorite of less than a touchdown this week.

Chopping the pot

The Winners Circle Proxy Service (Winnerscircleproxy.com) — which counts Jax Jags and IndianaJet, another finalist, as clients — posted Thursday on X that the final four entries had agreed to a chop.

The contestants declined to divulge details. But, according to a source, it was a partial chop, and the entries still will be playing for an additional $2 million-plus to the winner.

“I would like everybody to at least walk away with something at this point, with something extra at the end for whoever continues to win,” Menter said before a chop was reported.

Jones said he swapped 30 percent of his entry with other players when the field was trimmed to 13. The married father of two said he will use his winnings to pay for his daughters’ college education.

Motes, who is single, said the money will be life-changing for him and Menter, who is married with two kids, but “wouldn’t change me or him as a person.”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.