For the last ten years the Miami Dolphins have invited a group of Miami Dolphins fans who run websites down to Miami. I am one of four people who have been to all ten of them. I used to run another Dolphins website that no one ever read but somehow the Dolphins found me. We would go down every year and I just would update my site enough to keep getting invited.  Around year four I met the 2 Michelle’s, two girls from NYC who had a Dolphins blog. I started watching games with them and after Tall Michelle moved Short Michelle and I founded DolfansNYC.

Last year was a really big one for us. We donated a ton of money to the Miami Dolphins foundation and ended up winning a “Webby Award’ for best community website. We also used the opportunity to reach out to other Dolphins fan sites and raise even more money for hurricane Sandy relief efforts. It was a pretty amazing trip.

This year was even better for us. We won the community webby again and we ended up raising $3000 already this year that we donated to the Miami Dolphins Foundation. We also donated another $300 to two Dolphins Cycling Challenge riders who are doing a bike ride to raise money for the Sylvester Cancer Center at the University of Miami. We gave Joe Philbin, Sam Madison and OJ McDuffie DolfansNYC shirts and OJ told us he might wear it to our #MetLifeTakeover event on December 1st! He posted a photo of himself wearing it on Twitter too!

We also got to meet Brandon Fields and John Denny who signed some stuff for us to raffle off and we also had John Offerdahl sign some stuff too. He spoke to us and promoted his Gridiron Grill Off which you should check out if you are in South Florida. That guy is always hilarious but he had just come from a food and wine festival and had a few drinks in him and he was so so funny. All of us were dying. That guy is a legend.

The highlight of the trip for us was when we presented new CEO Tom Garfinkel our Miami Dolphins Foundation donation. He seemed genuinely moved and invited us to his suite to watch the game. We were honored and got to watch the game at the 45 yard line with free food and 2 Live Crew’s Luther Campbell sitting a few feet from us. We talked to a bunch of the Dolphins marketing staff and they had told us that they were big fans of what we were doing in NYC and we had come up in meetings. We spoke to Mr. Garfinkel a little more in detail about what we were doing as well. The whole thing was pretty amazing.

In the end the game turned out very poorly and sadly we left Miami with a bitter tastes in our mouths but looking back in a few years we won’t remember this one loss to the Bills, but we will remember the experience and how we took another step towards taking NYC back from the Jets fans! DolfansNYC over everything!

Hope to see you guys tomorrow at Slattery’s Midtown Pub to watch the Patriots game. Win or lose we will have a ton of fun and we will have new DolfansNYC hats for sale! Phins up!

Check out our photos from Web Weekend X below!

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Last Sunday the Dolphins lost a close game due to terrible offensive line play and some of the worst refereeing I have ever seen in an NFL game. It was amazingly frustrating and upsetting BUT despite this I still had a good time and I think most people watching at Slattery’s Midtown Pub did too. We have really built something special there and it makes the wins so much better and the losses almost manageable and I look forward to seeing everyone as much as I look forward to the actual football. Dolfans NYC is a really amazing thing and it looks like the word is getting out.

PhinPhinatic’s Paul Picken Jr. heard about our bar and took a several hour trip to our bar with his father in tow. He reached out to us before the game and said he wanted to do a story on us. It was great to meet him and he had a blast and wrote up a great review of our fan club and our bar. Check out the article here and enjoy a few highlights below.

Until recently, I mistakenly believed that outside of heading to Florida, finding an amazing Dolphins get together would be next to impossible. This past Sunday, despite a heartbreaking last minute loss by the Dolphins, I was proven drastically mistaken. I was shocked to see the sheer magnitude of their gatherings, and then noted that their Facebook group is approaching 1500 members and growing.  This appeared to be a gathering that I had to see for myself to believe.

On football Sundays, the traditional Irish pub menu is tossed out in favor of a Dolfan specific menu with some great selections and catchy names relating to the Dolphins, featuring such items as the “Sun Life Nachos,” “Chicken A.B.L.Tannehill,” “Marino Mozzarella Sticks,” and more.  After a quick talk with our waitress, Audrey, my father and I settled on a “Still Perfect Burger” and a “Brian Cox Buffalo Chicken Sandwich” with “First Down Fries,”  all of which were amazingly delicious and were all very large portions.

Close to game time the place was nearly full of Dolfans, with more strolling in every minute.  Every Dolfan that strolled in was warm and friendly, and gave the place a “Cheers-like” vibe where everybody knows your name.  I found out from Michelle that they have virtually taken over at least one section for the Dolphins at NY Jets game December 1st, with a list of 500 people that is still growing having purchased tickets and planning to attend.

The passion that Igor, Michelle and the other founding members of DolFans NYC have for the team is obvious to anyone that comes into contact with them.  Within minutes of entering an event at Slattery’s, even the most casual of fans will immediately notice their love of the Dolphins and fellow fans from all walks of life. If you’re ever in the NYC area, and are looking for a home to watch a Dolphins game, there is no better place than Slattery’s with this group to watch a game and I encourage you to do so.  From the high fives after good plays, the sighs to the cheers, through the chants and heartache – in this area, you will have an unmatched experience for watching the game.

And a bonus quote just because I am self absorbed and I like reading about myself…

Right before kickoff, the ringleader arrived.  Clad in Zubaz Dolphins pants, a DolFans NYC denim motorcycle cut adorned with patches, pins and Dolphins swag over his DolFans NYC shirt, Igor entered.  Throughout the game, he led the entire bar in their fully interactive participation in the day’s events.  From leading the bar in every “De-FENSE… De-FENSE,” chant, to every “That is good for another Dolphins FIRST DOWN” cry, everyone looked to him to lead the way.  The greatest and most entertaining audience participation moment comes with every Dolphins touchdown, as Igor climbs atop a bar stool, standing head and shoulders above the crowd, and the Miami fight song comes over the PA system in the bar.  There is nothing quite like hundreds of Dolfans singing that as one.  Immediately following each DolFan rendition of the Dolphins fight song, deep in the heart of Jets territory, comes the following chant which can be heard loud and clear from the entire block – “J-E-T-S, SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS!”

On Monday we had a huge party at Slattery’s Midtown Pub! The Dolphins were playing great football for 28 minutes before it all went to hell right before the two minute warning, but such is life. It’s a long season and you aren’t going to win every game. Fortunately, even with the loss Dolfans NYC had a great time. We had one of our original founding members DJ Tropic spin during commercials and it worked out really well. Even late in the game we were at least enjoying the music, food and the company. People stuck around and even celebrated and sang the fight song on the garbage time TD. I also noticed a ton of rational positivity on our Facebook page. It’s great to be around Phins fans who aren’t screaming Fireland this and Tannehill sucks that. I really love this group.

Both floors of the bar were packed. It’s great to see so many people show up when the game is on TV. We have really made an event of it. We had a big raffle and sold t-shirts and ended up raising over $1200 for charity. It was really amazing. The two big prizes in the raffle were a Bob Griese signed hat and another hat signed by Tannehill, Hartline, Jimmy Wilson and Austin Spitler. Two cool things happened with that. Our member Bryan who had donated the Tannehill/Hartline hat actually won the Griese hat. It was great to see since not only has he been a big supporter of the club but he also lost 90% of his Dolphins memorabilia collection in Hurricane Sandy last year. The other cool thing was that Austin Spitler got resigned today so all four people who signed the hat are actually still on the Phins.

Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures, even after we were getting beat on pretty badly. I hope you guys dig them. If you want to save one just double click the gallery below and it will take you directly to our Flickr page. Phins up!

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