With megastar Justin Timberlake walking right toward him during the Super Bowl LII halftime show at U.S. Bank Stadium, 13-year-old Ryan McKenna knew he had to take his shot. He quickly stopped the video he was recording and raced to open the camera app on his iPhone.
“I just thought to myself, ‘I’ll never get this opportunity again in my whole life,'” McKenna said. “I just went for it.”
In that moment, little Ryan McKenna went viral.
“My phone started blowing up,” father John McKenna said. “It died, like, instantly after it happened. We had friends from all over reaching out. I couldn’t believe it.”
McKenna is a seventh-grader at Derby Academy in Hingham, Mass. He flew in around noon on Sunday and the family had plans to fly out early on Monday morning. That is, if McKenna’s suddenly busy schedule permits it. He’s already scheduled to do a hit on Good Morning America, so that might affect the original flight plans.
“It’s been so crazy,” McKenna said. “I don’t even know what to think. All my friends have been texting me and stuff. It’s insane.”