On Sunday, the Miami Dolphins posthumously named Aaron Feis – an assistant coach at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High who sacrificed his life to shield students from gunfire at February’s shooting in Parkland, Fla. – as the 2018 George F. Smith High School Coach of the Year.

Greeted by a standing ovation from the crowd, Feis’ wife, Melissa, and daughter, Arielle, accepted the award on the fallen hero’s behalf during a third-quarter ceremony on the Hard Rock Stadium field.

Coach Aaron Feis lost his life protecting students during the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

Today, we honored his legacy by presenting his wife and daughter the George Smith High School Coach of the Year Award. pic.twitter.com/4VA4EpqXfj

— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) September 9, 2018

“It’s an honor for all of us, really, for Coach Feis to get the Coach of the Year Award,” said Eagles Head Football Coach Willis May. “If you knew him, you would appreciate that he got that award, because he really was a great man, mentor, friend and dad. For him to get the award was definitely an honor and well deserved. Anybody who knew Coach Feis loved him. We miss him every day and we’re very happy for him, his family and all the MSD family.”

Feis, a one-time Eagles standout center, served as both coach and school security guard at his alma matter for over a decade, taking pride in giving back to his beloved community in every way possible.

On top of instilling knowledge to linemen, warmly welcoming recruiters, and patrolling campus grounds on a daily basis, Feis helped as many as 70 players find collegiate football opportunities by compiling highlight DVDs and YouTube videos for anyone who asked, according to an ESPN.com profile.

In addition to honoring Feis, the Dolphins also named the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School football team as the Team of the Week and hosted players at the home opener.

“As far as being here today and getting to opportunity to get to be here, it’s amazing,” May said. “Our kids had a blast. To be on the field pregame, I saw mouths dropped. Everybody was just in awe and they were just incredibly touched. What a wonderful day for our kids and our program and we had a blast. We loved it and we can’t thank the Miami Dolphins enough for everything they’ve done for us since February 14. We want to say thank you and how much we appreciate it and what they’ve done for our kids, it’s amazing.”

As of this morning the #MetLifeTakeover tickets are all sold out! We are talking to the Jets about trying to get a couple more rows in another section close by but we have already sold over 1000 tickets! Even if you don’t get tickets with us everyone is invited to both the tailgate and the pre-party at our bar Slattery’s Midtown Pub. We also partnered with the NFL Experience to get you guys discount tickets with to their Times Square attraction.

Let’s start with the tailgate! The catered tailgate is being offered by Urban Tailgate up until game day, but our discount code only works until tomorrow night so this is your last chance to get the all you can eat and drink tailgate for $65. You can read more about it over on the #MetLifeTakeover FAQ and you can buy your tickets via Urban Tailgate here. The $20 off coupon is “DOLFANSNYC2018” and if you get the cheaper no alcohol option you can still get $10 off using “FINSUP” as the coupon code. And as always you are more than welcome to enjoy the tailgate party with us for free. Just BYO if you want to eat or drink but come party with us. We have a ton of stuff going on including raffles, merch sales, a live taping of Joe Rose & Nat Moore’s “Cup of Joe” and a performance from Solo D.

Speaking of Solo D he is also going to be performing at our Pre-Party at Slattery’s Midtown Pub. The party is going to start early at 6pm so that we can end by 9pm so people can still get some sleep before the #MetLifeTakeover. Slattery’s is at 8 E. 36th St in Manhattan and is walkable from Penn Station, Times Square and a ton of other Subway stops. On top of the Solo D performance we will have merch for sale, raffles and maybe even a live auction if we get a good crowd. We also just redid our Dolfans NYC museum in the back of Slattery’s so make sure you check that out. A lot of work went into that space.

Lastly I want to mention the NFL Experience promotion we are doing. The NFL Experience Times Square is a “football theme park” that features memorabilia, games, photo ops and much more. This article gives a pretty good run down of what you can expect if you visit. They call it “Disney meets the Hall of Fame meets Dave & Busters”. They reached out to us about doing something with us so we figured the #MetLifeTakeover weekend was a perfect opportunity since a bunch of people will be in town for the game. If you want to check it out we have discount tickets available on Friday and Saturday. It’s not too far away from Slattery’s so if you want to stop by before our event Saturday it should be the perfect pre-game to the pre-party. You can use the coupon code “DOLFANSNYC18” to get tickets for just $25 which normally run you $39. Should be a really fun weekend.

Okay, so that’s it! See a lot of you at Slattery’s on Sunday for the first bit of real football in a long, long time! Phins up!

Here’s your official #MetLifeTakeover pre-party announcement! Saturday September 15th from 6-9pm at @Slatterys111! Music from @SOLOD305 & @Tropic2PointOh. Plus raffles, merch and a live auction! Let’s party! pic.twitter.com/IAHGq3CbAi

— Dolfans NYC (@DolfansNYC) September 6, 2018

It took me 26 years to earn my first press credential. It took my son less than five.

Charlie – a laminated media pass dangling from a lanyard around his neck down to his knees – joined a group of Dolphins fan website moderators for a team-organized Web Weekend Training Camp event last Sunday.

At the conclusion of a closed practice, each attendee was granted field access to interview a select group of players, wandering down a short flight of stairs from our covered riser to a walkway through the bleachers seats to a designated area behind the left goal post.

While I’d normally join the scrum during media availability sessions to ask right tackle Ja’Wuan James and center Daniel Kilgore about preseason takeaways and the offense’s progression, I took in the moment from the back of the assembled group. Standing under the Florida summer sun and scant, grey-white cloud bubbles hovering above Nova Southeastern University, I soaked in a rare opportunity to cover a sporting event with my son.

Besides, when I tried to explain the significance of the special occasion to Charlie, he asked if we’d be talking to “the dolphins that swim in the water.”

But what he lacked in football experience and knowhow, he made up for in enthusiasm and encouragement. He giddily high-fived James and Kilgore, who bent down to their knees to greet the youngest media member in attendance. As the players walked off the field, he raised his arms in the air and chanted, “Go, Dolphins!” and innocently broke a media rule by snagging autographs for his personal collection.

Before departing, we stopped to greet Kenny Stills, who’s renowned for staying long after every practice to sign and take pictures with fans, just as he did for us last season. True to form, the Dolphins wide receiver smiled and chatted with an animated Charlie, who collected his second lifetime autograph from No. 10 – except this time, on a miniature toy ukulele that rarely leaves his side.

Just then, we recognized another Dolphins player who exited the locker room – the star quarterback whose left knee brace fascinated Charlie throughout practice (“How did he get that boo-boo?” he’d asked me repeatedly).

Although Charlie doesn’t know it, he’d stockpiled his first Ryan Tannehill autograph before he was even born. Back in October 2013, during Web Weekend X, each invitee was handed a single raffle ticket, and Michelle – then five months pregnant – received a second one for the baby. The last drawing of the evening was for a mini-Fathead set signed by the Dolphins quarterback, and of course, Charlie’s number proved to be the winner.

Charlie’s first jersey was, naturally, an aqua No. 17, and we took a photo of him as a baby in his Miami gear next to the now-framed sticker collection. Thanks to a senior member of the Dolphins Digital Media Team whom we’ve come to know closely over the years, Tannehill caught wind of the adorable snapshot and inscribed it, “To Charlie, Future Dolphins QB!”

Fast forward to Sunday – nearly four years later – and Charlie finally had a chance to meet his favorite player in person. While he was too shy to ask the quarterback about his “boo-boo” – he’ll get his media chops soon enough – he did hand him that trusted ukulele. A surprised Tannehill laughed before graciously signing the slightly-peeling body of the musical instrument, and gave Charlie a resounding high five after learning the full backstory of his connection to the young fan.

Although Charlie may not have jotted down notes or gathered enough quotes to submit a full practice report, he interacted with four key offensive starters, and even walked away with a bagful of keepsakes. Not bad for a rookie journalist covering his first of what will surely be many Dolphins events.

2018 #MetLifeTakeover tickets are finally on sale!

And yes, I said on sale! You don’t have to sign up for anything this year, you just buy your tickets when you are ready!

We have updated MetLifeTakeover.com with all the information and there is a HUGE frequently asked question section that you should read.

Once again this year we are teaming up with Urban Tailgate for the tailgate party and we have a ton of stuff planned this year. Links to buy tickets from there and our exclusive discount codes are on MetLifeTakeover.com as well.

The game tickets are first come first serve meaning the earlier you buy tickets the lower they are. The tickets are only $65 if you buy them before July 13th and they go up to $70 after that. On top of all that we have a limited number of bus tickets so you should sign up ASAP!

Okay let’s do this damn thing!

Click Here To Get Your 2018 #MetLifeTakeover Tickets!

For years when the NFL Draft was in NYC we used it as a promotional opportunity for Dolfans NYC. We would bring flyers and pass them out to every Dolphins fan and we would do everything we could to get on TV, not because we wanted to be “famous” or something, but because we wanted people watching at home to know that there was a place for Dolphins fans in NYC. And you know what? I think it worked!

We were really disappointed when the Draft left New York, but it’s clearly grown into a much bigger and fan friendly event. This year the Draft was in Dallas at Jerry Johnson’s monument to himself, AT&T Stadium. Since the stadium was so massive the NFL had an idea of bringing in superfans from all the teams that way when the draft picks were announced the cameras could show crazy NFL fans screaming on TV.

Each NFL team was given 50 tickets and told to invite their most diehard fans, but the way every team did this was different. I heard that some of the teams held contests to see who the craziest fans were and other teams just gave their wealthy season ticket holders the tickets. It’s why you might have noticed that the fans of the Atlanta Falcons were all dressed like insane people and the New England Patriots fans looked like a bunch of bored middle aged men wearing jersey over business casual outfits.

The Dolphins decided to invited two people from each fan club as well as some season ticket holders. This was really cool because it meant we got to go and we got to hang out with fan clubs from Atlanta, California,  DC, the Carolinas and from both New and regular Mexico. It was a great time, but I think the Dolphins made one mistake which was not filling the section. There was a local Texas cheerleading team in half the seats who were wearing Dolphins gear and cheering but clearly didn’t have much of a rooting interest. Day two had even less Dolphins fans and looked pretty sad until they started just letting in Dolphins fans who weren’t in our section to begin with. I hope if they do it again the Dolphins still invite some of the fan clubs, but make sure the lunatics from the Deep End and people like the Dolphins Bandits and Poppa Pump at least get the chance to go.

We totally lucked out with the way the team sections were organized. They were in alphabetical order by division do that the AFC & NFC East were up front. They had four teams to a row so that the Bills and Giants were on the outside and the Cowboys and Dolphins were in the middle. I am sure the plan was to have the local Cowboys up front, but it was nice to benefit from that decision.

The other really cool thing was that the NFL had the draft picks come to each section and celebrate with the teams. The NFL had a selfie stick and took selfies with the draft picks and each fan group. I would love to see those photos but I have no idea what happened to them. This also gave us the opportunity to heckle draft picks of other teams which was fun. I told Sam Darnold all about the #MetLifeTakeover and I let Josh Allen know how much fun it must be to live in Buffalo.

Right before it was our turn to draft I got $14 in ones as change from one of the vendors and I started joking with the former Cowboys cheerleader named Kelsey that was in charge of our section. She dared me to make it rain on our draft pick and like any reasonable person I couldn’t say no to a Cowboys cheerleader. So when Minkah Fitzpatrick had his name called I got my ones ready and when he came over to take a photo with us I made it rain on him. Somehow no one seemed to have taken a photo or anything, but fortunately for everyone Kelsey got video of the whole thing. I realize this was incredibly stupid, but the guy is about to get paid and I thought it was hilarious. Don’t judge me.

Day two of the draft was less exciting, because it’s day two of the draft, but it was still great hanging out with everyone including the super fans from other teams. It’s nice to bond with everyone even if you are all talking a little bit of smack to each other. I got to meet Jetman and his son and told him how excited I was going to be to see him again at the #MetLifeTakeover. Day two also featured an NFL legend and a current player announcing the picks. We had Dwight Stephenson and Reshad Jones who are both two of my favorite players of all time. I hope we get to see those selfies we took with them!

Lastly I should mention that I don’t really care about what draft picks we get because no one really knows if they are going to be good or not, but I am really happy we got out of day two with a TE that can score in the red zone and a very fast linebacker. I am also really happy with Minkah because I didn’t want to draft a QB early and my favorite position is safety. I hope he can come in and play free safety and let Reshad do what he does best and stay in the box and absolutely destroy people. Hopefully all our day one and two players can contribute right away.

So thanks again to the Dolphins for inviting us out and I hope we can do it again next year! I brought my pro camera and took a bunch of photos on day one including some of stuff that was going on before the draft and of course pictures of superfans. I didn’t shoot a ton because I was too interested in the actual draft, but I think you will enjoy the shots anyway. Phins up!

Ps. I finally got on TV on day two praising the mighty Dolphins Baby!

Every year we try to up the #MetLifeTakeover and so every year we try and raise the level of our annual #MetLifeTakeover video. It was pretty hard to outdo the last video, which was hosted by Dolphins legend Sam Madison, but I think we may have done it!

This year the #MetLifeTakoever was really on another level. Thanks to an early season game we had one of our biggest crowds with over 1100 people and thanks to our partnership with Urban Tailgate the party in the parking lot was out of control.

Both of the video teams from the last few years were unavailable and we sort of scrambled at the last minute to find a crew. Fortunately Curtis over at RizeOptix was recommended to us by one of our Twitter followers. He absolutely killed it with the video with a lot of help from our host Oscar Collazos. Oscar is a die hard Dolphins fan who happens to be a professional comedian. With no Dolphin royalty available to host Oscar was the perfect choice for the video and he did a fantastic job.

This video features interviews with former Dolphins Nat Moore & Joe Rose as well as Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel and Dolphins SVP of Communications & Community Affairs Jason Jenkins. Jason has actually been to every single #MetLifeTakeover and seems to really support what we are doing. There’s also an interview with Brian Miller who runs PhinPhanatic.com and did a series of stories about the #MetLifeTakeover. He also has been uploading virtual reality video to his new YouTube channel Phinatics360.

Also in the video is footage from our pre-party at Slattery’s Midtown Pub the night before and a performance from SoLo D. Every time I watch our video I get his song “Hit Squad” stuck in my head. I also need to give a shout out to DJ Tropic for DJing both parties and Sailor Jerry for sponsoring the tailgate.

Lastly, and probably most importantly I just wanted to thank everyone who came to the takeover, came to the tailgate, bought a raffle ticket, bought a t-shirt or just threw a couple dollar bills into a bucket at one of our weekly meet ups at Slattery’s. Because of you guys we have been able to donate $13,750 to charity this year and don’t think we are done giving. Just today we donated to Koa Misi’s CA wildfire fundraiser and we plan on doing more with Dolfans who live in Northern California.

We will have a full breakdown of everything we have donated at the end of the season but here’s an overview: We have donated $7000 to the Miami Dolphins Foundation, $2000 to the Dolphins Cycling Challenge, $1000 to RISE, $900 to cancer research charities, $2300 for various disaster relief efforts and several hundred dollars to our own members in need.

Okay, enough rambling. Let’s watch the 2017 #MetLifeTakeover video!

If you have been following us for a while you might know about the Miami Dolphins Web Weekend. The Dolphins started it 14 years ago as a way to reach out to all the different fan sites. I ran a Dolphins fan site many years ago and it only really lasted for a few months but I kept updating it just so the Dolphins would keep inviting me down to Miami. Luckily for me I did that because I met Michelle at Web Weekend and started watching games with her and her friends and soon Dolfans NYC was born.

This year was a good one. Not only did the Dolphins win (four straight Web Weekend victories!) but Dolfans NYC once again won the Miami Dolphins Webby Awards for Community Oriented Site and Best Use of Social Media. The Community award is a big one and was named after Eddie Jones who was the president of the Dolphins and sadly died in 2012.

Speaking of community, the reason we keep winning the award is because of all of you guys. The money we raise from the #MetLifeTakeover and our raffles and merch sales all go to charity.  This weekend we were able to donate $7000 to the Miami Dolphins Foundation and $1000 to The Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE). We presented the check to RISE CEO Jocelyn Benson and we hope to work more with them since they are based in NYC.

We had some pretty great guests at the Web Weekend as well. We had Kiko Alonso and Ja’wuan James speak with us on Friday and on Saturday we heard from Mike Tannenbaum and Dolphins legend Dwight Stephenson. We told Kiko about the donation we made to his hurricane Maria fundraiser and gave him a Dolfans NYC shirt. One of the most interesting moments was when Mike Tannenbaum told us that we would be surprised with how the linebackers would look on Sunday and they were really the difference in the defense this week.

On Saturday morning we participated in a Miami Dolphins Special Teams event. We helped pack up backpacks for Feeding South Florida. They feed hungry kids over the weekend. It gives them three meals a day for two days while they aren’t in school getting their school lunches.

The game Sunday was pretty awful on the offensive side of the ball but the defense was fantastic and we came away with a win. Plus the seats the Dolphins gave us were on the shady side of the field this year so it was way cooler than the #MetLifeTakeover. Might be my last Dolphins game of the year so it was nice to get a win.

Oh, one more thing… we showed a rough edit of our #MetLifeTakeover video to the Web Weekend group and they seemed to love it. We went through the video and sent in our edits to the director so hopefully we will have that for you soon.

Ignoring everything that happened after 1pm, yesterday was a tremendous success. We had over 1000 Dolphins fans sit together, threw one hell of a tailgate and raised a TON of money for charity. I just wanted to quickly thank everyone who came out especially our volunteers and everyone who helped us get stuff on and off the busses. The day went very smoothly right up until the moment the game started.

Huge shout out to Urban Tailgate for their help with the party. We had a few tiny hiccups (the Jets wouldn’t lets us park our busses by the tailgate!) but overall it was amazing. We had some complaints about the cost before the tailgate but I didn’t hear a single complaint afterwards. I have a feeling we are not gonna have any trouble selling tickets next year.  This tailgate was fairly last minute and I can’t wait until next year because we are gonna up the game on everything. Next year should be epic.

Thanks to DJ Tropic for playing music and Solo D and DWA for playing a few songs and keeping the crowd going long after the performance.

Thanks to Joe Rose and the team at Cup Of Joe for taping their show live at our tailgate.  Nat Moore and Tom Garfinkel were guests on the show and hung out a bunch. Thanks to Jason Jenkins who helped put that together and has been at pretty much every Takeover. He’s a huge supporter of what we do. Jim Jenson came by the tailgate too just to hang out. That was pretty amazing. Thanks Crash!

And finally thanks to our liquor sponsor Sailor Jerry. They have sponsored the last few tailgates and we really appreciate the love. I think they actually have a bar at Hard Rock Stadium.

I am sure I am missing some people but we will thank them all in the wrap up video. We will also have an update of all the money we were able to donate to charity thanks to this weekend, but I should mention that the Cam Wake signed helmet raffle raised nearly $1800 alone for the Miami Dolphins Foundation and we donate $500 to Kiko Alonso’s hurricane fundraiser after the raffle we did at the party at Slattery’s Saturday night.

I gotta be honest and tell you that after the tailgate last year I was completely burnt out and ready to never do this again, but this year I am just sunburnt and ready to start planning the 2018 Takeover!

Phins up, Jets still suck, check out all the pictures below!

We have officially sold out of tickets! We have nearly 1000 Dolfans coming with us to the Jets game with us this weekend making it the second largest #MetLifeTakeover of all time!  Now that we are done selling tickets let’s breakdown the plan for this weekend. Hopefully this will answer everyone’s questions. Read it carefully!

SATURDAY NIGHT:

We are having a party Saturday night at Slattery’s Midtown Pub from 7-9pm. We do this so people who aren’t from the area can check out our bar and meet people before the game. DJ Tropic will be spinning and Solo D is going to perform and we will be selling merch and doing raffle prizes and all that. It should be fun, come hang out!

SUNDAY MORNING:

If you are taking the bus with us to the game (and already bought bus tickets from us, we are sold out!) you will  need to meet at Slattery’s at 7am. It takes a while to get everyone signed in and we are boarding the busses at 8am so please come early. Slattery’s will have bagels and coffee for everyone. Please don’t bring coffee or other opened drinks into the bar.

TAILGATE:

Our tailgate starts at 9am and will be held at L4 in the bus lot. If you are driving and meeting us there you should look for a yellow parking pass and then walk over from the car parking area.

We offer an all you can eat/drink tailgate option from our friends at Urban Tailgate who are taking care of all of that. Tailgate tickets are available for $55 using the coupon DolfansNYC but only until 5pm Thursday. After that you can buy a ticket at the game but the price goes up to a staggering $85 so get your ticket no!

That being said, you do not need to pay for a tailgate pass to party with us! It’s optional. Feel free to bring your own food and drink and party with us. Bring a grill, bring anything. Let’s blow this thing out!

Joe Rose will be taping his Cup of Joe show live from our tailgate! He filmed from Slattery’s last year and it was a big success so they are back. That should be really fun.

We also will be having another performance from Solo D and DJ Tropic will be DJing as well. Tons of games will be set up and we will be selling merch and raffling off a Cam Wake signed helmet. Should be a hell of a party.

GAME TIME:

The game starts at 1pm and it’s expected to be sunny and in the 80s! Hell of a change of pace from the last few years. We are completely sold out of tickets but we have sections 345 & 346 plus a lot of seats in 344 so if you can find any of those on the secondary market come get crazy with us.

Last week at the Chargers game Dolphins fans made the news for taking over the new LA stadium, so let’s do the same. Let’s get loud as hell but save your voice for big moments. We gotta last all game. Watch for us to lead chants and bring rally towels (we will be selling some too). Let’s get crazy.

Oh, make sure you remember a clear bag for your stuff because the they won’t let bags in the stadium. We will be selling those too.

After the game if you are on the busses get back quickly because we will be leaving soon after the game. We will be dropping off at Slattery’s and hanging out and watching the late games and hopefully celebrating!

SOCIAL:

Finally, please use the hashtag #MetLifeTakeover as much as possible on any of your social accounts. We wanna get it trending again. Tag the players and the team and let them know what we are doing. Tag us as well. We are @DolfansNYC on everything. Oh, and we are working on a Snaphchat filter for the game so watch for that too!

We hope you’re as excited about #MetLifeTakeover as we are!! In a little over 3 weeks we will fill our sections with aqua and orange, giving our Dolphins a TRUE home field advantage!!

If you haven’t signed up it’s not too late! Sign up here! If you have signed up and haven’t paid yet get your money in ASAP!

Dolfans NYC is excited to announce a new partnership with Urban Tailgate! As you know, in the past we have done our own tailgates and while they’ve been fun, they’ve grown so big that it’s beyond the bandwidth of what we can put together. We almost decided not to do one this year, but then we were approached by Urban Tailgate to do something custom JUST FOR DOLPHINS FANS.

Urban Tailgate has built up a very cool brand and they have a great relationship with the stadium. They have all the permits needed to set up a full-service tailgate with tons of food and various drink options and they’ve been doing this at quite a few stadiums for different teams.

They are setting up a custom Dolfans NYC tailgate in the bus lot and are giving us a promo code for $20 off each ticket just for Dolfans NYC members!! Plus, a portion of each ticket sale will go to our charity.

The tailgate is all you can drink and eat! Fully Catered hot food including sausage and peppers, chicken marsala, BBQ pulled pork, penne a la vodka, hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken scarpiello, veggie burgers, and more!

Plus there will be tons of games set up, music from DJ Tropic and all the other stuff you associate with the #MetLifeTakeover only taken to another level.

They will be set up in the bus lot, next to where our buses will be parked and they will have everything up and running by the time we get there.

Now this is a lot more expensive than in years past but we think this is still a great deal.  Instead of a hamburger you get some serious food and instead of a couple of beers we will have a bar set up with beer, liquor and wine.  The regular price is $75 per ticket ($45 for kids/non-alcoholic option), BUT, if you USE THE PROMO CODE DOLFANSNYC YOU WILL GET $20 OFF!!! And  part of each ticket sale goes to our 501(c)(3) for charity!

For more details and to purchase your tickets, please click here! 

REMEMBER – Promo code is DOLFANSNYC to get your $20 off!!!
Can’t wait to see everyone at the game!! GO DOLPHINS!!!