I hate this Incognito/ Martin thing so much that I hate that I even have to address it, but I do. I am so mad at all the media and fan speculation about this. We have no idea what really happened and I am not sure we ever will despite what the NFL will tell us. I do know that we need to move slowly and carefully with this as a fan base and we have to stop jumping to conclusions.

I also want to mention that situations like this are EXACTLY why I like to keep things positive. Believe it or not, players are people and they need our support. Players want to play for franchises that will support them through thick and thin.

Ben Volin wrote an article today speculating about the reasoning behind Martin’s blaming of Incognito AFTER the Dolphins said they were going to put him on the Non Football Injury list. The quick summary is that Martin needed to get out, but he wanted to keep getting paid so he blamed Incognito.

Now I hate speculation like this, and we shouldn’t judge anyone until we learn more about this situation, BUT if Incognito WASN’T the main reason for Martin having a breakdown I think the fans might be.

Every single week I heard fans tear down Martin even when he was playing well. He was letting sacks up but he had far less QB hurries than other linemen. He is a young player making a position switch taking over for a career pro bowler and fans ripped him apart.

Imagine if when you got home from work every day 1000 people on Twitter called you worthless. Martin might be too weak to take the NFL but there is no reason you should have to deal with that shit.

Fans can do very few things to make an actual impact on the team and we owe it to ourselves to use every opportunity to do so. Go to games, get loud on third downs and support your players. Make them WANT to play for you.

That’s what being a fan is all about. Phins Up!

On Thursday Dolfans NYC threw a big Halloween party and the Dolphins won in miraculous fashion as Cam Wake sealed the game with only the third overtime safety in NFL history. Another great half was wasted with another poor third quarter but Ryan Tannehill made the plays he had to make to lead the team to a game tying field goal with seconds left in regulation. When the safety happened Slattery’s Midtown Pub erupted and we had free shots all around. The Dolphins broke the Bengals winning streak and ended their own losing streak and we partied.

We had DJ Tropic DJ again and he killed it all night. We had a costume contest as the three finalists battled it out via Instagram to see who would get the most likes. Mr. McGibblets out beat Ricky Williams by one vote and Joe Philbin came in a distant third. I loved the Philbin costume but after four straight losses he didn’t get a lot of love. My pajama wearing “Tired Of Losing” costume got the most votes but of course I was not eligible and Mr. McGibblets walked away with a hat signed by OJ McDuffie and Sam Madison. Mr. McGibblets also promised he would be coming to our #MetLifeTakeover on Dec 1st in full costume!

The next Dolphins game is a Monday night game against the Bucs and we will be having DJ Tropic in the house again as well as a huge raffle. We also will have our new DolfansNYC hats for sale again. I hope you guys get a chance to pick one up. Hope to see you guys then.

And lastly, before we get to the pictures I wanted you guys to check this video from the “Miami Dolphins Web Weekend” that the Dolphins posted on their site. DolfansNYC got a lot of love in it and special mention of the $3000 we donated to the Miami Dolphins Foundation. Thanks to you guys for our opportunity to do so much in the way of charitable donations!

Now check out the Halloween party photos from Slattery’s Midtown Pub below. Double click to open em in a new window so you can save them to your computer!

[tylr-slidr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolfansnyc/sets/72157637242565126/[/tylr-slidr]

Oh man! I am watching real football as we I type this. The Ravens have a first and goal against the Broncos in the first quarter and that’s a touchdown. Vontae Leach scored the first TD of the regular season. He could have been a Dolphin.  Anyway, the Dolphins play their first game this Sunday and I couldn’t be more excited. I don’t have much interest talking about the upcoming Browns game, there are a million sites you can read about that, but I wanted to talk about the upcoming Dolfans NYC watch party.

First of all I want to remind everyone that we are now watching games at Slattery’s Midtown Pub on 36th St between 5th Ave and Madison. If you haven’t heard, 3rd & Long closed it’s doors after 22 years in business. It’s amazingly depressing, but fortunately we found Slattery’s and Slattery’s is going to be a fantastic home base for Dolfans NYC.

Slattery’s is only a few blocks away from 3rd and Long but it’s a lot closer to both Grand Central Station and Penn Station. They are giving us happy hour drink prices and designed a menu with us in mind. Everything from your standards like wings and cheeseburgers to Miami favorites like a Cuban sandwich and menu items named after the Dolphins like the Ricky Williams veggie burger. On top of that free shots when the Dolphins win. It’s also a much bigger place with a lot more seats and a lot better sound. It’s going to be amazing.

A few other notes about the bar… There is street parking on Sundays and after 7pm so we should be good as far as that goes unless we get a Saturday playoff game. So let’s hope we have to deal with that problem. The bar is also ALL AGES so if you have kids who are Dolphins fans you are welcome to bring them, but be warned, it is impossible to get certain members (me) not to scream obscenities at the TV so be warned. Also, I wanted to mention that the bar is ONLY showing the Dolphins game upstairs. Downstairs they will be playing the local game but that’s it. We are going to try to get a Redzone TV upstairs but other than that it’s all Dolphins all the time. So if you bring a friend who’s expecting to watch another game, they might be disappointed. Other than that, this place is perfect, and honestly I don’t think I am going to miss non Phins fans hanging out at our bar…

With a new bar and a new logo comes new t-shirts. We got brand new Dolfans NYC t-shirts that will be available on game days starting with Sunday at Slattery’s. They are grey tri-blend shirts that are amazingly comfy and even come in women’s sizes. We spent a TON on these new shirts so the price is gonna go up to $20 but all the money goes to charity (and to making more Dolphins stuff). We got stickers, buttons and bracelets coming soon, and hopefully they will be here by Sunday but no promises. Lot’s of cool stuff this year.

Anyway this year should be amazing on the field and here at Dolfans NYC. Hope to see you guys at Slattery’s!

Well the Dolphins have a new logo and everyone kept asking us if we were going to update our…. well the answer is yes and here it is! It was designed by infamous comic book/skate board/heavy metal illustrator James “Barf” Callahan. He designed our last logo and I had to hit him up again. I have been fortunate to have known Barf for over a decade and I knew he could take the Dolphins new logo and make it our own. We stuck with the old Dolfans NYC sun, but since the helmet was gone the NY was no longer an option. I asked Barf to do something to make our logo stand out and he came up with the water dripping off the Dolphin. Personally I think it’s bad ass. It makes our logo stand out from the Dolphins version and his scowl makes him look a little more “New York”.

I hope you guys like the logo as much as we do and we will have new t-shirts on sale at Slattery’s Midtown Pub week one. New logo, new bar, new year. Let’s Go Dolphins!!

We are incredibly saddened to hear of the closing of Third & Long, our home for the last four seasons. The manger Curtis and the Long brothers have been so awesome to us and helped us grow this club to what it is. We could not have done this without them. Curtis gave sound and the big TV to about ten of us in 2008 and our numbers have grown every year. Third and Long was in business for 22 years and they became a New York City landmark and we are so, so upset to see them go. So thank you Third & Long from all of us at Dolfans NYC.

But with Curtis’ help we found a new home just a few blocks from Third & Long. Dolfans NYC is moving to Slattery’s Midtown Pub on 36 St. between Madison and 5th Ave.

As tragic as the closing of Third & Long is, this could be fate for our Dolphins club. We were starting to out grow the bar with standing room only every week and sometimes lines out the door. At Slattery’s we have a huge space upstairs all to ourselves. We have a giant projection screen, plenty of HD TV’s, fantastic sound, great food, free Wifi, a balcony and lots of seats. The bar staff has promised to wear Dolfans NYC shirts on game day and they are going to have some Dolphins memorabilia upstairs year-round.

Slattery’s has an affiliation with the Rangers and Notre Dame but they don’t have a big turn out for NFL games until now. They are very happy to have us and are doing everything they can to make us happy. We are working out drink specials, our own Miami themed menu, free shots when the Dolphins win and discounts on food for Dolphins fans all year. They also are committed to help us raise money for charity which is an important part of what we do at Dolfans NYC. We couldn’t be happier with our new home… well unless they can talk Curtis into doing some bar tending shifts on game day.

Slattery’s is only a few blocks from Third & Long but it’s much more convenient to major transit hubs. It’s easily walkable from Penn Station, Grand Central and Herald Square. As far as midtown goes you can’t really beat the location. I got there from my place in Brooklyn in about 25 minutes yesterday.

Also, to welcome us to the bar, any Miami Heat fans who want to watch game 7 at Slattery’s they are offering happy hour specials (including a free shot with your first beer) to anyone wearing Dolphins gear. We aren’t making a whole thing of it (Michelle and I can’t make it) but if anyone wants to get together and check out the bar it might be fun.

We really want to thank Justin and John Slattery for making us feel at home and going above and beyond to make this transition as easy as possible. And of course we want to thank Curtis and the Longs for everything they did for us during our time at Third & Long.

The Dolphins have a new logo and we have a new bar. Welcome to the future of Dolphins football in NYC. Phins Up!

(more…)

When Michelle and I started DolfansNYC we knew there were opportunities to make money doing it, but both of us felt the exact same way. We didn’t want to bring money into the equation because we are doing this for the love of the Miami Dolphins. We never even really had a conversation about it but we knew we would donate all of the money we made to charity.

Since 2009 we have been making yearly donations to both The Miami Dolphins Foundation and a local charity the I Will Foundation. The last two years we have also made donations to Ride DCC, the Dolphins Cycling Challenge. It’s been great to be able to give back, but this year has been really special.

Aside from the three charities I mentioned we also made a small donation to a breast cancer foundation and did a big online fundraiser for Hurricane Sandy relief. Hurricane Sandy hit DolfansNYC hard and we wanted to do something to help out. Originally we were raising money for the Red Cross but after I took a trip out to the Rockaways, Roxbury and Breezy Point we decided to donate the money instead to Habitat For Humanity. Almost everyone we talked to said they were doing the most good in the area. We are also going take another $500 and donate it to a yet to be named Rockaways specific charity in honor of one of our most committed DolfansNYC members Bryan who had thousands of dollars of damage done to his place including losing 90% of his Dolphins memorabilia.

In 2012 we raised over $4000 for charity and here are the breakdowns of where the money went:

• $2000 to Habitat For Humanity
• $1000 to The Miami Dolphins Foundation
• $500 to a yet to be named Sandy relief charity
• $300 to the I Will Foundation
• $300 to Ride DCC
• $50 to a breast cancer charity

On top of all that money raised we also raised enough to buy a new order of DolfansNYC shirts, pay for some food/supplies for our Jets tailgate and pay for some other random club costs. It was a great year despite the Dolphins play on the field and we hope this is a new standard that we can reach every year. Thanks so much everyone! Go Dolphins!

Ps. If you donated do the online Sandy Fundraiser I am going to be sending your prizes out soon. You should have them by Christmas!

It’s been a wild week for NYC Dolphins fans. Last Sunday we were as high as we could be, wiping the Jets out and dancing in their home stadium. Then 24 hours later our city had been so badly damaged that it’s going to be years before we can fully recover. And then of course there was the Colts loss as icing on the cake. But we are New Yorkers and we are not going to let this mess us up! So many of our members and friends have had their places damaged or destroyed, people are without work and power.

Dolfans NYC has been committed to raising money for charity from day one and I can’t think of a better time than now to give. Last night I set up a fundraiser to try to raise money for the Greater New York Red Cross. I put a $1000 target goal, but hoped to eventually raise even more. In less than 24 hours we have already raised more than half of that and donations keep coming in. It just shows you how awesome this community, and the larger Dolphins community is.

So check out this video I recorded at Third & Long during the Colts game on Sunday. We talk to some of the members of our club that have been impacted by the storm. These guys are the lucky ones but still have had some terrible stuff happen since the storm hit. And after you watch the movie check out our fundraiser page and make a donation. You can get some cool prizes including Dolfans NYC shirts which we are making available for the first time outside of Third & Long.

So keep the donations coming. You guys are inspiring. I hope you are all safe out there. Go Dolphins!

The DolfansNYC tailgate and takeover was the most successful thing we have ever done as a club. We bought 200 tickets, rolled up to the stadium in two packed busses and were pretty much the only fans left at the end of the game. It was amazing. There had to have been more than 300 fans at the tailgate and we sold out of EVERY Dolfans NYC t-shirt and raised a bunch of money for charity. We plan on donating $1500 to the Miami Dolphins Foundation when Michelle and I head down to Miami for the Titans game in two weeks. Really great experience.

If you somehow missed the news we had a few special guests at the tailgate… Dolphins owner Stephen Ross showed up with minority owner Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, CEO Mike Dee, Phins great Nat Moore, MiamiDolphins.com Andy Kent and a ton of cheerleaders. It was so cool of them to do that and a pretty good PR move. Some Jets fan hit Mr. Ross with a cheeseburger knocking his glasses off. Luckily they fell right at my feet and as soon as Ross got his glasses back on he just ignored the whole thing and kept posing for pictures and signing autographs. One of our members asked him why he came down and he said “I could have stayed in my box all game but I had to check out the tailgate. This is the biggest Dolphins fan club in the United States!” Very cool.

After the tailgate we filled the stands. We may have been in the endzone in the nosebleeds but I assure you our presence was felt. Mike Dee tweeted after the game “Great to head home w/a win. Complete team effort w/ an assist from DolfansNYC, who kept the Fins chants going all game long!” Reggie Bush didn’t mention us by name but he Tweeted “Loved the Dolphins fans showing up today! We heard you guys loud and clear and so did the rest of the stadium! Thanks for your support.” Not to brag or anything (okay maybe a little) I was leading the chants from the endzone. By the end of the game all the Jets fans were gone and the Dolphins fans left seemed to flood into our sections and we chanted “LET’S GO DOLPHINS” so loudly you could hear it on TV. It was one of the best experiences of my life. What a great day.

I want to thank everybody who came out, and especially want to thank my partner Michelle who did all the dirty work on this one. I am pretty good at doing the promoting and doing the screaming but Michelle is the best party planner you could imagine and put all 199 tickets we bought on her credit card. We have worked on this for months, but she busted her ass all week on the details while I was off hanging out with my girlfriend in California. So thanks Michelle, thanks to Sailor Jerry rum for sponsoring the tailgate, thanks to Third & Long for hosting a breakfast before we got on the buses, thanks to everyone who joined us at the game and thanks to the Miami Dolphins organization for not just recognizing us but supporting us.

All the pictures I took at the tailgate are below. If you want to save one just double click it or you can just go directly to our Flickr page to see and save all the pictures there.

Go Dolphins!

[tylr-slidr userID=”” groupID=””]http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolfansnyc/sets/72157631882074836/[/tylr-slidr]