Okay we get it. The Dolphins aren’t good at football. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy the football season. We had a fantastic weekend here in NYC even if the last three hours of it were really terrible. Our weekend started off with a party at our bar Slattery’s Midtown Pub on Saturday. We invited our normal crew plus anyone who was in town for the game to a three hour meet and greet kinda thing and it was a ton of fun. We had people there from Indonesia, the UK, Canada and of course TON of people from Florida. It was a great turnout and we raised a lot of money.

We had DJ Tropic DJ and Solo D perform and of course we had a big raffle where we raised about $1000 for charity. On top of that we did a live auction to benefit the Dan Marino Foundation where we had a Marino signed ball go for $400 and a Cam Wake signed mini-helmet go for an insane $310. We decided to round up and we will be donating $1000 to the Dan Marino Foundation to help people with autism and other disabilities.

Lastly I just wanted to thank the Miami Dolphins, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Dolfans NYC member Rambo for donating items for the raffle and of course our volunteers for helping out! You guys rule.

Now check out some photos from the event! If you want to save an image you just have to double click it in the gallery and it will take you to the actual page on Flickr.

Last weekend we headed down for Miami for a convergence of two events. First we had the annual Web Weekend which is a conference of people who run Miami Dolphins web sites that has been hosted by the Dolphins for the last 12 years. Michelle and I became friends there so the birth of Dolfans NYC came out of that event. The second event is the Dolphins Fan Club Weekend which is a gathering of fan clubs from around the country
for a home game. Unfortunately since we are part of both weekends we can’t go to all the events but we had a great time anyway. Oh and the game was pretty good too…

Let’s see if I can give you guys a quick rundown of the event.

FRIDAY:

On Friday we went to the team training facility and got to listen to a bunch of people talk and we did a little Q&A with everyone. The highlight was of course Coach Campbell but we also got to talk to Matt Darr, Rishard Matthews and Mike Tannenbaum which was pretty awesome. Darr might have been the most interesting speaker actually because he talked a lot about what it’s like being an undrafted free agent with almost no hope of making the team, but it was all pretty great. Fortunately our resident journalist, Alex Kramers, wrote up the Campbell talk and he got a few moments to himself with Rishard Matthews!

SATURDAY:

Web Weekend on Saturday always starts with a community service event with the Dolphins “Special Teams”. This particular Saturday we helped Feeding South Florida pack up expired but still good food to give to families in need. And by “we” I mean everyone else because I slept 90 minutes the night before and was dead to the world. Luckily we made a $250 donation Feeding SF so I feel a bit less guilty.

Saturday afternoon was our chance to tour the practice faculties, check out the Nick Saban Memorial Bubble, and eat in the team cafeteria. After that we had the Miami Dolphins Webbie Awards that are given out by the team and voted on by other Miami Dolphins sites. For the third or fourth year in a row we won the Eddie Jones award for community service which is what we strive for. So I want to thank everyone who has helped us raise money for charity ever year. Speaking of which we donated $5000 to the Miami Dolphins Foundation which was a great thing to be able to do. Thanks again! (Oh we also won the Webbie for best use of social networking which I got to keep cause I run all that stuff! Woo!)

Between Webbies we got to talk to some more people including CEO Tom Garfinkel (who is always incredibly interesting to talk to) and Dolphins legend Tony Nathan who has a movie in theaters now about his life! I cannot wait to see Woodlawn now that I know it’s about him. Tony was wearing an Alabama hat so we had to give him a Dolphins NYC hat and he actually wore it to the Dolphins game the next day when has an honorary captain! Amazing! The webbies ended with a media roundtable where we got to ask  of Dolphins journalists a bunch of questions. The roundtable featured Adam Beasley, Andrew Abramson, Andy Cohen, Alain Poupart and Dolphins great Kim Bokamper. Afterwards we gave Kim a Dolfans NYC shirt which makes up for the time that he let me take home a menu from his restaurant… speaking of…

After the webbies we went over to Bokamper’s to meet up with the Fan Club Weekend crew. We had about 25 people in Miami for the game so it was good to see Crazy Uncle Billy and the crew. We just missed Solo D’s performance but I think he is gonna play both the #MetLifeTakeover AND the Takeover preparty so I wasn’t too upset about it.

SUNDAY:

What can I even say about Sunday? It was the best first half I have ever seen in my life. There was even an insane storm during part of it but I just stayed in my seat and got wet. What a blast that was. The second half wasn’t quite as exciting but it was still a great time and honestly I thought I was going to pass out if I had to sing our fight song again!

So yeah, amazing weekend and it was awesome to see everyone and be in Miami. Big extra thanks to Scott Stone and Sergio Xiques for throwing the Web Weekend and Fan Club Weekend for us.

Oh and see you guys tonight at Slattery’s for Thursday night football!!!

Last weekend I headed down to DC with a van full of Dolfans NYC members to support our brothers to the south. NOVA Dolfans and The Valley Finatics were doing their best #MetLifeTakeover impression in Washington called the DC Shutdown. After the NOVA Dolfans came to our takeover a few years ago they were really inspired and spent nearly two years planning this thing. Dolfans NYC did all we could to help them with this thing but they really killed it last weekend and I am glad we had a bunch of our crew there to support them.

Saturday night there was a party at the Mellow Mushroom in Herndon, VA. It’s the NOVA Dolfans home base and although a hippie pizza place is an odd choice for a sports bar, it was a blast. Solo D did his thing and our buddies Paul Picken and Stephen Daniels hosted the event all night. Even OJ McDuffie showed up! It was great.

The next day there was a huge tailgate but Dolfans were EVERYWHERE. DC only gets a Dolphins game every 8 years and it’s an easy drive from NYC all the way down to North Carolina. Ever Phins fan on the east coast seemed to be there and we actually ended up tailgating with a totally different crew because they let us use their grill (the NOVA guys had a catering company). Of course we still made our appearances and partied with those guys for a while.

The game itself left a lot to be desired but in the end we got a win and Dolfans totally took over the game. The DC Shutdown crew was in one end and then all the Dolfans that bought tickets on their own seemed to be on the visitors sideline lower level. The combination of these to huge packs of Phins fans with the hundreds of other Dolfans there created a lot of noise and you could hear us clearly on TV. The whole thing was a blast.

I thought I was going to take a ton of photos during the party and the tailgate but I ended up doing none of that. I did get a big group portrait at the Mellow Mushroom and a nice shot of my friend Kathleen doing a selfie with OJ McDuffie so I figured I would post those two shots but that’s really all I got.

Anyway, see you guys on Sunday at 4pm at Slattery’s Midtown Pub! I can’t wait to get back to our bar! Phins up!

Normally spending 10 hours outside in the freezing rain is not my idea of a good time, but on Monday it was a blast. I got to MetLife Stadium about five minutes before the gates open and we rushed to Lot L. We found the nearest empty section and parked under the L8 pole. 15 minutes later we had Phins fans surrounding us. About a half hour later the Jets L8 tailgate showed up… I guess L8 stands for late because they had to take their party down the block. The Takeover had already begun.

Bryan and I set up our merch table and put out a bunch of  free AquaHydrate water and Sailor Jerry rum. Someone showed up with a 30 cup coffee pot and we filled it with hot apple cider. The Sailor and cider was a huge hit and we didn’t even need ice for the AquaHydrate! We had palm tree coolers and someone hung up a Jets piñata and we had people cooking food on either side. We were ready to rock!

Unfortunately the rain started to fall and everything got a little bit miserable. The grilling stopped and the palm trees got blow sideways and a lot of people spent some  time locked in their cars. But the northeastern Phins fans carried on and just started drinking to keep warm. Chants of J-E-T-S Suck Suck Suck and the Dolphins theme song rang out into the semi empty parking lot. There seemed to be a lot more Dolphins fans than Jets fans… certainly in our lot.

By the time Michelle and the four charter buses arrived from Slattery’s we had amassed a huge crowd of Phins fans. The Dolphins showed up with a camera crew and got some great shots as did our in house camera guy. It was a pretty great party despite the weather.

We handed out 200 inflatable palm tress and the 600 Dolfans NYC rally towels that AquaHyrdrate sponsored  and sold some of our warm DolfansNYC hats to those who forgot what NYC in December feels like and I took a bunch of pictures.

Unfortunately the rain deterred some of the Dolphins brass that was planning on attending but we had Brent Grimes’ hilarious wife Miko Grimes stop by again as did Andrew Abramson from the Palm Beach Post.

The game itself was pretty awful and the stands were freezing but I was really impressed with our crew who screamed on every third down and chanted Let’s Go Dolphins throughout the whole game. You could hear us chanting DE-FENSE on TV and the announcers mentioned the Miami crowd several times. Jarvis Landry was specifically asked about us after the game and coach Philbin mentioned us in his opening statement in his post game press conference.

Overall it was a fantastic #MetLifeTakeover and I have pictures to prove it! If you want to download a picture just double click it and it will open Flickr in a new window.

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What a great few days we had! On Sunday we threw a #MetLifeTakeover pre-party at Slattery’s Midtown Pub because we knew a lot of people weren’t going to be able to tailgate because of their day jobs. Monday Night Football is an awesome time but it’s not very convenient! It worked out really well considering the freezing rain Monday night and we had a lot of fun!

Sunday was a great opportunity for everyone from out of town to meet each other and check out Slattery’s. It was also a great way for us to get a lot of the logistics out of the way. We handed out bus passes and gave out info about the tailgate and practiced some cheering. We also gave out a bunch of the Dolfans NYC #MetLifeTakeover rally towels that we had thanks to the support from AquaHyrdrate.

We had some special guests as well! The Miami Dolphins sent two of their staffers Sergio and Hayle (Hayle’s dad is a Dolfans NYC regular) and they brought former Dolphins QB Jay Fiedler. He was just supposed to be there for an hour signing autographs and taking pictures but he ended up sticking around a lot longer and even introduced our other special guest Solo D. Solo D did a short set including the new Dolfans NYC anthem!

As you probably know a big part of Dolfans NYC is our charitable donations so we had to have a HUGE fundraiser for the #MetLifeTakeover. The Dolphins sent us a ton of stuff to give away (including 150 shirts!) so we did free giveaways, a raffle and a live auction! The raffle was a big success and we raised over $1200 the biggest prize of the night was a Ryan Tannehill signed helmet and that clearly went to the right people. Check out the amazing video they recorded when they gave the helmet to their kids. It brings a tear to your eye!

The live auction went amazing as well! We had some game used cleats sell for $70, a playbook signed by Jarvis Landry go for $50 and a signed Mike Wallace helmet went for an incredible $550! With those items plus a few extra donations we ended up raising $750 for Darryl Talley the former Bills linebacker who is going through some very hard times as a result of brain injury from a career spent chasing Marino all over the field. Former ESPN AFC East blogger Tim Graham told Talley’s heartbreaking story and we are so glad we were able to help a former enemy. As much as we hate the Bills, we all love football and it’s moments like this when we an come together for something bigger.

When you add the auction and the raffle and all the Dolfans NYC merch we sold we raised over $3000 that will go into the Dolfans NYC war chest so that we can throw bigger and better events and most importantly make charitable donations like the $5000 we recently donated to the Miami Dolphins Foundation. I have a feeling that Ride DCC will be getting a donation in the near future!

Now before I get up all the photos from the actual #MetLifeTakeover I just wanted to thank everyone for coming out to the pre-party. I especially want to thank the Miami Dolphins, Jay Fiedler, Solo D, Slattery’s and AquaHydrate for making it one hell of a party. I also wanted anyone in the tri-state area to check out Jay Fiedler’s Brookwood Camps. The Fidler family runs a summer sports camp that combines normal sleepover camp fun with sports camps and is worth checking out. Always great to support a former Dolphin… especially one from New York!

Now check out the photos below! If you want to download one, just double click it and it will open in a new window!

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I just wanted to throw up a post today with a bunch of small updates that you guys might want to know about. It’s hard to update after a loss but for once I felt proud of our team after a loss instead of just upset. It was completely heartbreaking to lose like that but to see our line step up after Albert went down and to see Tannehill play so tough after getting hit over and over again was pretty inspiring. Until that last drive, well after Finnegan went down, the Lions had only one pass worth talking about. Obviously it wasn’t good enough, but this is not your same old Dolphins. But let’s move on and get to the news.

First of all, happy Veteran’s Day. We took the money we made on Sunday at Slattery’s and donated it ($300) to the Wounded Warrior Project. It seemed like the perfect timing for a donation like that. It means a lot that we can give back like this while doing something as fun as this club.

Also in Veteran’s Day news Andy Cohen profiled our friend Jim Miller on the Dolphins website. Jim is a great dude and I get to see him nearly every year as part of the Dolphins Web Weekend. He and I have some political differences but I have never enjoyed discussing our differences more with anyone. He is a true patriot and someone I am honored to call a friend…

In Dolfans NYC news we surprised everyone at the bar on Sunday by announcing that the Marks Brothers, Mark Clayton & Mark Duper would be coming to Slattery’s this Thursday for an autograph signing. We had waited until the last moment to announce because we didn’t have 100% confirmation. Unfortunately we should have waited a little longer because the event they were coming to NYC for got moved. Fortunately for us it looks like they may still be coming after all, just not until the December 14th game against the Patriots. Things are still a bit in the air but as soon as I get more info I will pass it on to you guys.

This Thursday should still be a blast at the bar anyway. We are obviously playing a huge “must win” game. I mean they don’t get much more must win than this in November. Plus it’s prime time so that’s always a lot of fun. And we are doing a FREE raffle to make up for the Marks Brothers mistake. But make sure you get to the bar early. The upstairs of Slattery’s is reserved for us but the downstairs will have a post work happy hour crowd that will probably leave once the bar fills up with 300 Dolphins fans.

Okay, that’s all I got for now but we will be updating soon with more news about the #MetLifeTakeover so be on the look out for that. Have a great Veteran’s Day!

It’s victory Monday and we can breath a little for the next two weeks. No better way to go into a bye week than with a commanding victory and coincidentally it’s a great time to sell you guys stuff too! So I just wanted to remind everyone about our big Jets week takeover on Monday Night Football on December 1st! We have nearly 1300 people signed up but only about 600 people have paid. We want to beat our MetLife Stadium group sales record of 761 so if you have signed up get your money in ASAP!

If you haven’t signed up do it now! After signing up you will get an email (be patient sometimes it takes a week or more for us to get back to you) with info on how to pay for the tickets. If you have already signed up all the emails should be sent out by the end of today. If you haven’t received an email from us check your spam folder or email dolfansnyc@gmail.com for more info. But don’t bug Michelle she has a full time job and a baby so sometimes it takes a few days to get back to people.

You can read this FAQ to answer more questions about the #MetLifeTakeover but here’s some quick info. The tickets are $60 which is lower than face value. We get them for slightly less than that and use the money left over to help fund events and to give to charity. We don’t profit at all off any of this. It’s a labour of love.  We don’t like give out what section the tickets are in because we don’t want Jets fans to buy seats around us but they are up top. I know a lot of people don’t love to sit in the upper decks but I assure you sitting with close to 1,000 Dolphins fans is a much more fun experience than sitting front row at the 50 yard line. We also have a bus ticket package where we provide transportation from our bar Slattery’s Midtown Pub but keep in mind that it’s very difficult to park in the city on a Monday night.

Also, I wanted to announce that we are going to throw a party the day before the game at Slattery’s. No details yet but it will probably take place around the 4pm games and will be very worth attending. Since we aren’t doing an official tailgate this year, Sunday will be a great opportunity to meet fellow Phins fans from NYC and beyond, buy Dolfans NYC gear and check out some of the serious surprises we have in store. So if you are coming from out of town make sure you plan to be in the city on Sunday!

Lastly I wanted to thank everyone who came out to the bar on Sunday. We raised over $400 for Hank the bulldog’s medical bills and another $100 for the no kill animal shelter BARC. Really means a lot that we are able to do that for members of our community.

Now enjoy the next two weeks and get ready for a serious test against Aaron Rogers and the Green Bay Packers. Phins up!

SIGN UP FOR THE #METLIFETAKEOVER HERE!

Yesterday was amazing. Not only did the Dolphins TROUNCE the Patriots but we had an amazing first day at Slattery’s Midtown Pub. About 400 Dolphins fans showed up to our first meet up of 2014 and it was a blast. We had some technical issues to start the day with DJ Tropic’s DJ set up not quite working as planned and the upstairs TV’s looking like the Dolphins were wearing the Detroit Lions jerseys in the first half but DJ Tropic managed to kill it despite his limitations and the TV’s got fixed before the second half. Things are only going to get better from here!

We have a lot more planned this year and hopefully the Dolphins will keep winning so that you guys will keep coming back in crazy numbers like yesterday. It was so much fun and we raised over $1000 for charity through the massive raffle and t-shirt sales and that doesn’t include our cut of the bar tab. We aren’t going to have a raffle every week but between our weekly events and the #MetLifeTakeover our plan is to donate over $10,000 to charity this year.

Now about the game! Can you believe the Dolphins beat the Patriots by double digits despite giving the ball up three times, settling for four field goals, playing without three starting linebackers, Mike Pouncy, Reshad Jones and Dion Jordan, and getting mediocre QB play? Obviously we are going to have more injuries this year and we already lost Ellerbe for the season, but this team is just going to keep getting better. Even Tannehill haters know he can pretty constantly play better than yesterday. With this suddenly powerful run first offense Tannehill can be a game manager and still succeed. The Patriots look worse than ever, the Jets looked pretty bad despite the win and I still don’t think the Bills can be competitive with EJ Manuel.  This season could be a lot of fun if yesterday wasn’t a fluke.

Time for some photos! I took a bunch of photos before and after the game. I was way too panicked to do anything during the game despite an appearance from Michelle’s son Charlie! Also, despite being a professional photographer I took EXTREMELY mediocre photos. Oh well, such is life. You guys will probably dig them anyway.

So check out the photos below! Phins up!

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