Although he won the Pigskin Picks grand prize in 2007 — a car during the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl involving Boise State and East Carolina — Mililani's Jason Taira considers winning the weekly Pigskin Picks contest and a trip to Las Vegas just as exciting.

"I've been wanting this Vegas trip. I love it. This is a great prize," said Taira, 45, a Waipahu High graduate. "All this time I've been trying but never got it."

Taira correctly picked 14 winners among 15 games and won the tiebreaker. Besides the Vegas trip for two in which he'll take his wife, Taira also wins $100 worth of pizza from Papa John's.

A Vegas trip actually might have been meant to be.

"We were supposed to go Thanksgiving week, our whole family went, but we couldn't go," Taira said. He said his father, mother, two sisters, brother and niece went. "(My) parents had an anniversary, niece just made 21, my dad had a birthday. It was like a celebration."

Taira almost didn't get to celebrate.

He almost forgot to hand in his ballot while missing the deadline for the online contest, which he enjoys because of the cumulative standings.

"I was so busy ... too much things going on, only thought about it after," he said.

"This was totally by luck. I was rushing. I filled out any kind. I was just checking the boxes."

Note: Taira won a two-year lease of a car in 2007. He said he ended up buying it.