Posts Tagged ‘DolfansNYC’

The 2023 #MetLifeTakeover Is Live!

Tuesday, August 1st, 2023

We are so excited to bring you an all new #MetLifeTakeover purchase process that should go much smoother than things have in the past. If you were wondering why we are late getting tickets up this year it’s because we designed a brand new MetLifeTakeover website and moved our PayPal checkout system to a Shopify store. On top of that we now have a whole new seat selection process which should make our life easier and give you the flexibility to choose where you sit and with whom. I don’t need to get into this all here because we have a brand new website and a full frequently asked question page for you to learn all about the new process, but I will let you know a few things.

First of all, sorry for the delay. We were looking for a web designer and finally found one that was willing to work for free and of course you get what you pay for. We supper appreciate her, but she ended up getting swamped at work and unfortunately the page just wasn’t ready in time. I gave up on my dreams of a fully custom website, and we signed up for Wix and I spent countless hours learning how to build us a site. It’s not perfect but I think it will work.

The Shopify store is great and should make your lives much easier. Easier checkout, more options and unlike PayPal you will actually get an email confirmation. Plus we are set up as a non-profit with them and we can accept tax deductible donations with ease. The new seat selection should make this process much easier (and faster). Plus you will be getting the seats directly from the Jets instead of from us via the Jets and you will now be able to get support directly from them if you have any ticket issues. Basically once a week we will be sending codes out to people who purchased tickets and you can use your code to pick your seats and download your tickets.

Now the bad news. Prices have gone way up. Fortunately we put down a deposit last year and so we have over 900 tickets to the game and the prices are significantly cheaper than the secondary market but they are still $110 per ticket which is up $100 from last year. After the regular season starts the prices go up to $120 so it’s a good idea to order soon. Tailgate tickets have gone up quite a bit too, but we aren’t marking up those at all, so we are actually losing money on tailgate tickets because of credit card fees. Also for the first time kids under 10 eat free with an adult tailgate ticket purchase! Bus tickets are the one thing that haven’t gone up in price but we are raising them $5 once the season starts as well to encourage early sales. All that being said, we still have a great deal on a total package which saves you $10 if you buy game ticket, tailgate and bus.

Okay, now with all the changes and new system please read the site and the FAQ carefully, and please read it again before sending us an email. We get crushed with emails during these few months and even if it’s something simple they add up so please make sure you can’t answer it yourself before reaching out. We really appreciate it.

NOW BUY YOUR #METLIFETAKEOVER TICKETS HERE!

2023 #MetLifeTakeover

2023 NFL Draft

Monday, May 1st, 2023

I went to the NFL Draft for the first time back when it was in NYC every year and Jake Long was our first pick and for some reason I just kept going back. I’ve missed a few years here and there but I think I have been to nearly a dozen of them over the years. Last year we didn’t have a first day pick so I almost didn’t go but I was already going to be out in LA and it’s a nice drive to Vegas from there so I decided it was worth extending my trip by a couple of days. This year we once again didn’t have a first round pick, and it was in Kansas City, but for some reason I signed up again and at least I got to eat a bunch of BBQ.

As many of you know, I am a photographer for a living and I love the access I get as a member of the “Inner Circle” the area in front of the stage where 24 fans from each team get ot sit. The Dolphins offer these spaces to the people who run fan clubs so I have been lucky to get seats there several times now. A lot of the same fans go every year so it’s been great to have a little reunion every year and take a ton of photos.

I guess I should say something about how I feel about our actual draft picks in a blog about the draft. With only four of them it was going to be hard to make a huge impact but I was really hoping to get offensive line help early. I am less concerned about tight end because we have so many other weapons but when Washington was still on the board at 84 I was a little disappointed we took a running back. I was kinda hoping we would trade for Cook so that sort of took him off the table (or did it?) After the disappointment wore off I came around to the first two picks a lot more. We have had such issues with secondary depth in the past and if Cam Smith is as good as he looks, that problem is solved. Plus with our aging corners, he’s obviously the future at an incredibly important position. Achane was easier to get excited about. Total BPA pick who is electric and makes so much sense in a McDaniel offense. Is he big enough? Will those ankle breaking moves work against NFL talent? I have no idea but there is huge upside for a player taken that late in the draft. In the sixth and seventh we addressed TE and the oline and I don’t know if either of those guys will pan out, but I am glad they addressed some needs… and Higgins seems he could have a huge upside as well (big, fast, smart, breaks tackles).

Anyway the Draft was a blast even without a first round pick and thanks a ton to the Dolphins for continuing to invite me to these things. I a bunch of photos so I hope you get a chance to look through them. I got photos of a bunch of the draft picks, all the superfans and even a couple of famous YouTubers if you (or your kids) are into that kinda thing. Check out the gallery via Flickr below…

2023 NFL Draft

#2022 #MetLifeTakeover Recap & Photos

Tuesday, October 11th, 2022

2022 #MetLifeTakeoverDespite the loss the Dolphins took on the field, the #MetLifeTakeover weekend was absolutely incredible. I cannot believe how much we have grown and it’s been so great to hear from so many people about how much fun they had despite the game. It means so much to us that you guys keep coming back and we can’t wait to do it again next year, hopefully even bigger. So let’s get to some numbers.

We had over 1400 people sitting together across four sections. We had over 500 people pay for our tailgate with a lot more people just coming to hang out around us in lot L4. We had five busses and gave out 800 rally towels for free. Between two raffles we raised over $5000 for charity and our friends at Ticketboard raised another $1000 with their raffle. We were able to donate $2500 to the Miami Dolphins Foundation, $2000 to the Jason Taylor Foundation, $500 to the Concern Foundation for breast cancer awareness month and we will be matching Ticketboard’s $1000 donation to the Dolphins Cancer Challenge at the end of the season (The DCC is in February 2023).

Next up we have some thanks to give out. First of all thanks to everyone who volunteered to help out,  donated raffle prizes and just showed up. Only two of us run this whole thing, but we couldn’t do it without you all. We need to thank our bar Slattery’s Midtown Pub, our catering company Urban Tailgate, The Dolphins, The Jason Taylor Foundation, DJ Syckturtle, Solo D & Miami Sports Music for providing music (and a live podcast). We need to thank Liquid Death, Sailor Jerry, Reyka Vodka & Fistful of Bourbon for providing beverages for our tailgate. Thanks to Oscar and RizeOptix for our recap video (hopefully coming soon – check out last year’s here). Thanks to Antwan Staley for writing about the event for the NY Daily News (if anyone has a copy of Saturday’s paper let us know) and big thanks for Nat Moore & Joe Rose for making it out to the tailgate to sign some autographs and take some pictures.

Between the party at Slattery’s Saturday night and the tailgate on Sunday we had so much fun this weekend. If only the Dolphins could done their part and won. But this isn’t just about football, it’s about friends and doing some good for the community, and on those levels we came out with a huge win. Thanks again for coming out and check out some of the photos I took on Sunday below.

2022 #MetLifeTakeover

2021 #MetLifeTakeover Recap Video

Monday, September 26th, 2022

This recap video is very late, but honestly after three huge wins and the next takeover less than two weeks away, maybe it’s the perfect time to release it. Last year was such a blast. We had a really fun pre party at Slattery’s where we raised a ton of money for charity, then we had one of our smoothest tailgates ever, good weather and a huge win. We also had a bunch of the Dolphins media crew show up including Dolphins legend OJ McDuffie, his The Fish Tank podcast co-host and our old friend Seth Levitt, Travis Wingfield from Drive Time and Johanna Torres from Dolphins Today.  Check out the video below to see interviews with all of them and a bunch of Dolfans, a mini Solo D music video, and tons of shots of Dolfans taking over MetLife Stadium.

This is also a great time to let you guys know that we are only about 50 tickets away from the most tickets ever sold to a #MetLifeTakeover EVER. We want to break our record of 1250, so if you have been thinking about going, now is the time! This is going to be our best event ever. Phins up!

Get your tickets to the 2022 #MetLifeTakeover here!

2022 #MetLifeTakeover Tickets Are On Sale!

Saturday, June 11th, 2022

Hey guys, we have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the 2020 #MetLifeTakeover tickets are on sale and you can get them by clicking here.  The bad news is that we are having trouble with our online shopping cart. I will update this when we get it working, but if you are reading this it means there are still some issues.

The problems aren’t happening for everyone, we have already sold a LOT of tickets. Really impressive start even with the shopping cart system being messed up. If you are one of the people having issues you can try a few different things. The first is try a different browser. It works for me on Chrome but not Safari for example. Try on your phone, or try on a desktop. Just whatever options you can think of, try that first. If you still can’t get it to work, just keep adding random stuff to your cart and if anything adds try deleting it. When that happens for some reason everything will just suddenly show up in your cart and you can adjust it from there. Honestly the whole thing is so weird and I have sent a bunch of support requests trying to figure it out but haven’t had any luck yet.

If you still can’t get it to work, just wait a couple days because we are going to get it figured out. We aren’t gonna sell out of tickets in the middle of the summer so don’t panic. And if you are still having issues in a week, just email us at dolfansnyc at gmail and we will get you sorted out another way.

Okay, now that we have talked about troubleshooting, let’s talk about the event.

As you probably know by now we are throwing another massive group takeover when the Dolphins play the Jets in New Jersey on October 9th. We do a free party the night before at our bar Slattery’s, an all you can eat and drink tailgate before the game and of course we buy multiple sections of upper deck tickets so you can be surrounded by Dolphins fan at an away game. There’s no experience like it. We even do bus transportation to the game from our bar Slattery’s.

If you haven’t been before, check out our video page to get the full experience and then head on over to our FAQ if you have any questions.  If you have been before you know what to expect so let me just give you the updates. The big update is the price unfortunately. EVERYTHING has gone up in price since last year. The Jets are charging us way more for tickets, food prices have gone way up and my god the busses got expensive. This means two things 1) You are gonna pay a little more this year and 2) We are gonna make less money for charity. Ultimately this event is about bringing us all together and while the charity aspect is a huge part of what we do, hopefully we can make up those margins by doing some raffles and merch sales. We need to make this event affordable.

Ticket prices if you order before the season starts are $65. That’s exactly what they were if you bought during the season last year so it’s not bad. We have had more expensive years ticket wise in the past so I don’t think that’s a big deal. Food prices are up more than 20% but our tailgate partner Urban Tailgate is also willing to take a cut on his margins and we are offering the full food and drink package for $85 which is exactly where it was last year too. We had a $10 off deal for a little bit last year which we don’t have this year but the tailgate is $100 after the season starts so it’s still a pretty good deal. You can also just hangout out with us at the tailgate and BYO if you like. Everyone is welcome.

The biggest increase is the bus and it’s dramatic. In the past we charged $40 for round trip tickets and we made a decent bit of money for charity on those and this year we have to charge $50 and we might end up actually losing money on the bus. There are cheaper public transportation options so if you are on a budget look into those, obviously not as fun as a rowdy bus of Dolphins fans, but we just want to make sure  you know about it. We are pretty upset about the bus situation honestly.

Oh and one more thing, we introduced “The Total Package” last year where we offered transportation, tailgate ticket and game ticket at a discount. Unfortunately we can’t offer a discount anymore, so we are giving everyone who buys the total package a free DolfansNYC drink koozie. It’s obviously not as good as saving $10 but we wanted to do something fun for you guys. We will also have extra koozies for sale at the tailgate for $5 if anyone wants to pick one up who didn’t get the Total Package.

I realize this post has been a little bit of a bummer, but this event is so amazing and we do so much good that I had to end it off with some good news. We did a raffle to win two Total Packages to the Takeover and in the process raised almost $900 for the National Compassion Fund who makes direct donations to victims of mass casualty events like the recent events in Buffalo and Uvalde. The winner of the raffle was actually 2020 Dolphins Fan Of The Year Big E who then immediately donated the tickets back to us and bought his own, so we will find a deserving recipient for them and let your you guys know about that when we figure it out. Really great from Ian.

Thank you guys so much for everything and we can’t wait to see you on October 9th, or evens sooner at Slattery’s!

Get your tickets to the 2020 #MetLifeTakeover here!

2022 NFL Draft

Sunday, May 1st, 2022

I have no idea why I go to the NFL Draft nearly every year. It’s a complete mystery. I don’t watch college football so I don’t know who any of the players are and yet I have gone to 10 out of the last 15 Drafts. One of those Drafts was a virtual Draft and I actually was shown on TV via Zoom for that one so I think that actually makes it 11 out of 15.

It all started as a marketing decision. Back in 2008 we didn’t even exist yet, we had a small group of Dolphins fans that watched together but we were hoping to find more. The Dolphins had the first pick in the NFL Draft and back then the Draft was in New York every year so we figured it would be a fun experience and maybe we could find some new local Dolphins fans. By 2009 our crew had grown bigger and just before the Draft Michelle and I set up social media accounts for a new “official” NYC Dolphins fan club called Dolfans NYC. We hadn’t watched a game as Dolfans NYC yet, but we were building. We made flyers and brought them to the Draft to hand out to every Dolphins fan we could find. It was great outreach.

Dolfans NYC @ NFL DraftAfter that we went to every NFL Draft in NYC using it to try and get on TV, not for the “fame” but so that Dolphins fans at home watching might realize that there was a club of Dolphins fans in NYC and maybe they should type Dolfans NYC into google and try and find us. Our group got bigger and bigger every year. One year a cop stopped me at the Draft and I thought I had done something wrong. Turns out he just wanted to know where he could get a new Dolfans NYC shirt because his old one got damaged in the wash.

In 2015 the NFL Draft left New York and for the next three years there was no Dolfans NYC representative at the Draft, but in 2018 the NFL introduced something called the “Inner Circle” where a handful of die hard fans from each team would be sat in special seats near the stage where cameras could film them whenever that team would draft a player. The idea was that it would give the team’s biggest fans a great experience while also giving the NFL great footage to use on TV. The Draft was in Dallas that year and half my family lives there so I had a place to stay and Dolfans NYC had a bunch of airline miles so I flew to Dallas, put on as much Dolfans NYC merch as possible and did whatever I could do get Dolfans NYC on TV. I missed the 2019 Draft, but I got on TV for the 2020 virtual Draft. In 2021 I got a chance to go to Cleveland for the Draft. Everyone had to be vaccinated and wear a mask and there were only 12 people allowed per team, but it was still a great experience.

This year we ended up trading all of our picks for Hill and I probably wouldn’t have gone but unfortunately I booked my ticket to Vegas about a week before the trade so I was kinda stuck. After the Dolphins traded their first round pick I actually decided not to go to the first day of the Draft and spend it with my girlfriend who had never been to Vegas.

On Day 2 I went down to the Draft a bit early to check out the NFL Experience which features a bunch of different NFL related activations. There are some autograph signings and games where you do football skills and you could see the Vince Lombardi trophy and all the Super Bowl rings. I feel like it would be really fun for a family, but maybe not so much for a middle aged punk rock dude with a herniated disc and torn hip. I also got to check out a lot of this stuff last year in Cleveland.

The Draft itself was very Vegas with a bunch of celebrities and Raiders cheerleaders and for some reason Criss Angel.  The famous faces were a good mix of old and new, plus a lot of legendary players. Barry Sanders was a crowd favorite. The crowd around me was pumped about Donny Osmond but had no idea who MERO or Sean Evans were (I was pumped for them) and I am sure the kids there were really happy to see pro gamers FaZe Rug & Dr. DisRespect and the TikTok duo who I didn’t recognize. The Dolphins Draft choice was announced by the legendary Larry Csonka who I didn’t photograph because I was too busy cheering for him. It worked, and once again Dolfans NYC got on the broadcast.

As far as the actual draft picks, you can read a million site that will tell you about them, this post is about the experience of going, and some Dolfans NYC history. I will say that I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t pick a lineman. I think the Dolphins are a lot happier than we are about center and right tackle. I am not sure why that’s the case but I hope they are right. I guessed our first round pick was going to be a pass rushing LB and I was right. I don’t know anything about Tindall but a player that had a second round grade with a ton of upside and is fast as hell is perfect for a late third round pick. I have no idea why we drafted a WR in the 4th but he’s very fast, so that makes sense with our offense.

Click here to see all my pictures from day two of the 2022 NFL Draft in Las Vegas!

2022 NFL Draft

2021 #MetLifeTakeover

Wednesday, November 24th, 2021

Thanks you all for coming out to the 2021 #MetLifeTakeover. What an absolute blast! From the party at Slattery’s to the tailgate to the Dolphins play on the field everything went off without a hitch. Despite a slightly less than normal turnout (the team’s record, the pandemic and the Jets only selling us 700 tickets didn’t help) we still had one of our most successful years. Thanks to you guys we raised over $6000 for charity between raffle, auction and merch sales. And that doesn’t even include the money we made off the tickets sold. That money is going back into our war chest to make new merch, raffle prizes and other expenses for next season, but it will all eventually be turned into even more money that we can use to do more good. The merch/raffle/auction money will be going to the Miami Dolphins Foundation, The Dolphins Cancer Challenge and the Jason Taylor Foundation.

So here’s a quick breakdown on the weekend. On Saturday night we had a great crowd at our bar Slattery’s Midtown Pub. We had DJ Syckturtle spin both that night and the tailgate the next day. We had a live auction that raised over $1000 on just three items and we had a big raffle as well for a bunch of great signed stuff. One of our members even brought a team signed ball from the Philbin era that had some great signatures on it despite how we may feel about those years. Another one of our members donated a Marino jersey that raised $275 in the live auction. Special shout out to Robert who bought it AND the Christian Wilkins signed jersey for $500!

One of the coolest parts of Saturday night, and the tailgate, was that the Miami Dolphins entire podcast network came out. We had Dolphins legend OJ McDuffie and his The Fish Tank co-host Seth Levit (and DJ DJ Prēc), Drive Time’s Travis Wingfield and Dolphins Today host Johanna Torres all come out and party with us both days. Nat Moore and Jason Jenkins also came out during the tailgate… those guys never miss one. Want to give a special shoutout to OJ who signed autograph after autograph and posed for picture after picture the entire time he was there. And another shout out to Seth who also runs the Jason Taylor Foundation who donated the Jason Taylor jersey to our game day raffle. He told us to give all the money to the Miami Dolphins Foundation in the DCC but we raised so much that we had to surprise him with donation to the JT Foundation as well.

The tailgate itself was an absolute party. We took over the entire parking lot between L4 and L7. It was massive. Our partners at Urban Tailgate killed it again. They were a little understaffed at the last minute and that led to some long lines, but the food was incredible. We will get that worked out for next year and make sure the lines aren’t nearly as bad. Huge shout out to our friends at Sailor Jerry for providing not only Sailor but also some bottles from their sister brands Reyka Vodka and Fistfull of Bourbon.

The game couldn’t have gone much better. The Jets hung around for a bit, but in the second half the Dolphins put them to bed and you could hear our “Let’s Go Dolphins!” chants on TV. Several of the Dolphins players Tweeted about us after the game and the #MetLifeTakeover hashtag absolutely exploded on Twitter. I couldn’t even keep up with it. We even got a little write up in the Miami New Times. Very cool.

So thanks again everyone for making this year one of the best years ever. I can’t wait to do it all again next year. I got a pretty good gallery of photos for you too. I have a back injury so I didn’t do a great job documenting it, but there are still some fun shots here. Also we have the 2021 #MetlifeTakeover video coming soon. That should be amazing. Now go check out the photos below! (Click here to view the gallery directly on Flickr where it looks less wonky than the embedded gallery viewer.)

2021 #MetLifeTakeover

2021 #MetLifeTakeover Tickets On Sale Now!

Monday, June 28th, 2021

We are so psyched to be able to bring you another #MetLifeTakeover! It was obviously incredibly disappointing to have to go virtual last year, but with things getting back to normal we are full speed ahead with the 2021 Takeover (November 21st, 1pm at MetLife Stadium) with a full tailgate, our normal massive group ticket purchase and bus transportation from our bar Slattery’s Midtown Pub all for less that you have paid in the past.

We were able to get a great ticket discount because we put a down payment on tickets last year during the pandemic and we are passing that on to you. Tickets are only $65 and just $55 if you order your tickets before the start of the season. This is the cheapest we have been able to sell tickets in years and it’s pretty incredible. Our round trip bus from Slattery’s is also less this year, returning to the $30 price after an increase in 2019.

Speaking of Slattery’s, they officially reopen September 1st but the current plan is to do a small scale Dolfans NYC pre launch for the final preseason game on August 29th. More details to come on that, but it’s pretty exciting news as they have been closed for over a year.

Our other big update is that for the first time we are selling tailgate tickets directly this year. Food and alcohol costs have risen this year so our partners at Urban Tailgate have had to raise prices, fortunately we worked out a deal where if you buy directly from us you can save $10 on the all you can eat/drink tailgate ticket and $5 on the non-alcoholic ticket. With our discounts they are priced at $75 and $50 respectively which is still one hell of a deal considering the super high end food and drink options. You can always BYO too, but we make it easy for you with our fully catered tailgate.

The other great thing about selling tailgate tickets directly is that we can now sell you our TOTAL PACKAGE BUNDLE with a game ticket, round-trip bus transportation from NYC and a tailgate ticket at an even bigger discount. All three options are only $150 or $125 with no alcohol. It’s a hell of a deal for an entire day of you just sitting back and relaxing and enjoying the Dolphins stomp all over the New Jersey Jets.

Keep in mind ALL prices go up after the start of the season so make sure to get your ticket purchases in before September 12th. Plus the earlier you order, the better the seats! Also, if you want to sit in a “Family Friendly” row, you MUST order before September 12th as well so we can make sure you guys are all sitting together.

I think that’s it. If you need more information or have any questions PLEASE READ OUR FAQ before emailing us directly.

NOW CLICK HERE TO BUY YOUR 2021 #METLIFETAKEOVER TICKETS.

Ps. If you haven’t been to the #MetLifeTakeover check out the video below, or for more videos from past Takeovers, click here.

2021 NFL Draft Photos

Monday, May 3rd, 2021

I almost called this post a 2021 NFL Draft recap, but we aren’t going to be getting into the actual picks very much, more just my experience in Cleveland and then we can take a look at some of my photos from the weekend (well, technically it was Thursday). I will say this about the picks, I am very excited about all of them. I would have loved Harris at 18 because that would have been really fun, but RBs are the most replaceable position in football and if you had asked me what the Dolphins needed without knowing any of the players in the draft I would have told you pass rush and receiver and we got two great players at those positions plus a beast at OT and apparently the best safety in the draft (which happens to be my favorite position) so I am pretty happy with it. But that’s enough of my second rate analysis, let’s talk about the trip.

2021 NFL DraftWhen the NFL Draft was in NYC we started organizing group trips starting with the 2008 Draft when we picked Jake Long with the first pick in the Draft. We didn’t even have a club yet. The next year we printed a bunch of flyers and handed them out to everyone to promote the club which we had just started. We kept doing this and using it as outreach for the club until the Draft moved out of NYC. In 2019 I got invited to go to Dallas to be part of the Inner Circle and it was a great experience and I couldn’t wait to do it again in Vegas last year. Michelle was coming too and we had a bunch of plans for meet ups and fun things like that, and then Covid happened. I did get to be part of the screen behind Goodell instead, but not quite the same thing.

This year I think I lucked out. The NFL only allowed 12 people per team into the Inner Circle this year and you had to be vaccinated by April 15th. Finally my high blood pressure helped me out in life and I got my second shot in early April. I also happened to be holding my phone in my hand when I got the email from the Dolphins. I am not exactly sure who else was on the mailing list, but I bet it was all of the fan clubs, but when I saw it was first come, first serve I emailed back within seconds before even looking at flights or hotels. I ended up staying at a horrible motel out by the airport because of it, but it was well worth it in the end.

I don’t watch college football and I try not to dig to deep into Draft stuff because I don’t want to get excited about a player and watch him go right before we pick to the Jets or something. I remember after the Chiefs drafted Eric Berry I was so god damn disappointed I stopped following the Draft from then on, but I still love the Draft experience. I love having a reason to get excited about the Dolphins again, I love interacting with fans from the Dolphins and talking some smack to rival fans and just being part of this group experience of the most die hard fans in the world coming together for this admittedly kinda boring event. I mean can you imagine explaining it to someone who doesn’t like sports? It’s crazy how much we love it.

Igor At The NFL DraftI personally do not care one way or another about getting on TV but I do care about getting the Dolfans NYC logo on TV. Our group trips to the Draft were such a good way to grow the club and my hope is that if people at home in NY see a Dolfans NYC hat or t-shirt on ESPN they might look up the club and realize that there are Dolphins fans in their backyard and they had no idea. It’s all about spreading the word. So I thought it was very cool that I got some TV time during the first pick, what I didn’t expect was getting even more TV time on the actual Draft stage!

I have no idea why they introduced this fan sitting in Goodell’s seat thing, but they picked one person out of the Inner Circle for each pick to sit on stage. After the first pick I started to look around and realized of the 11 remaining Dolphins fans who hadn’t been on stage, there were only a few of us in Dolphins gear that wasn’t just your standard jersey. I figured if I was a producer I wouldn’t pick someone who was just in a jersey if I could help it. I sort of figured I had a chance to get our logo on TV in a bigger way so when it got close to the 18th pick I stood up and started looking around for NFL employees, and I made eye contact with a guy who immediately called me over and that was that, I got to go into the chair.

When they brought me up I thought I was going to be really nervous so I just tried to be as chill as possible. Goodell shook my hand and told me to enjoy the seat and a producer came over and told me the Dolphins had already made their pick and my time in the chair would be short. She told me that after the pick I would be handed a jersey and once I got it I would stand up and either hand it to the pick if he was there or just hold it up to the crowd. After that I just got to sit there and relax. The chair was comfy as hell and I saw people taking my photo so I crossed my legs to get the Jordans in the pictures. When Goodell came back out he showed me the pick and asked me if I like it. I didn’t even see who was picked 17th so I wasn’t sure if Harris was even still on the board. When I saw Philips I was pumped because we desperately needed a better pass rush and he’s a beast. I almost flashed The U symbol to the crowd before Goodell read of the pick but I absolutely chickened out. I didn’t want to get in trouble for signaling the pick before it was announced. After that I got handed a jersey and a screen came down with Philips on it and I was told to hold it to the screen which was weird because there wasn’t a camera there and Philips was hugging his family and not looking at the screen so Goodell just told me to show it to the Dolphins fans. After that someone took the jersey and told me to exit stage right and that was it. Later round picks got to keep their players Draft card so kinda jealous I didn’t get mine, but over all a very cool experience.

I also met some great Dolphins fans but I just wanted to shout out my dude Alex who picked me up from my hotel and brought me home from the draft on Thursday. It saved me like $70 on Ubers cause that’s how much I spent on Friday and it was great talking football with him at the NFL Experience before the Draft. Thanks man! Huge shout out to TPP as well for the challenge coin. Means a lot!

I am not sure what else I should add, but the whole event was very cool from the NFL Experience stuff (I got to see all the Super Bowl rings and managed to hurt my shoulder trying to throw a Hail Mary) to the gift bags (I got some new raffle prizes for the club next season) to getting to sit in the chair. I got a bunch of photos for you guys too, all from Thursday since I didn’t bring my camera back for Friday and I left Saturday. Check them out below!

2021 NFL Draft

Virtual #MetLifeTakeover, Raffles & Giveaways

Monday, November 23rd, 2020

Brian Flores Signed HelmetI cannot imagine how crazy this week would be for us if it weren’t for the coronavirus pandemic. It would be #MetLifeTakeover week with the maybe best Dolphins team in Dolfans NYC history going against a winless Jets team. Yeah the loss yesterday was tough, but this would undoubtedly be our biggest year ever. Unfortunately, 2020 hit and life might never be the same, but at least we have the Dolphins to look forward to every week and I can’t remember the last time we could say that. It goes without saying that there will be no in person #MetLifeTakeover this weekend, but we can still have a virtual one and raise some money in the process.

The biggest thing of the week is our raffle benefiting the Miami Dolphins Foundation Food Relief Program. The Dolphins sent us a Coach Brian Flores signed helmet as the grand prize and this is one of those times where we are pretty bummed out we can’t enter our own raffle. Our friends at This Is The Year are including a Flo Knows t-shirt in any size to go with the helmet. The second place prize is a mini football signed by one of the greatest centers ever to play the game of football, Hall of Famer Dwight Stephenson. And third place prize is the Don Shula commemorative Yearbook the Dolphins sold during the opening day game back in September as well as some Dolfans NYC patches and stickers. Raffle tickets are $5 each or 5 tickets for $20 and the drawing will be done after the Jets game.

BUY YOUR RAFFLE TICKETS HERE

On top of the raffle we will be doing some giveaways on social media as well. We have a few cool prizes including a Mercury Morris signed photo, another Don Shula Yearbook and an actual seat back from Hard Rock Stadium (technically it was SunLife at the time). Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for a chance to win those prizes throughout the week.

We will be picking the winners after the game during our VIRTUAL #MetLifeTakover on Zoom! Join us for a big watch party in a giant Zoom meet up!

And that is our other big news —  we are doing a game day Zoom watch party! So once you have the game on, come join our zoom party at the link below and we can all watch and celebrate together. We will have everyone muted during the game but will unmute everyone during big plays so we can all celebrate together. Hopefully we can get the fight song going and of course some J-E-T-S Suck chants! We haven’t done anything like this before but hopefully our virtual Zoom chat will work out without too much trouble and we can at least get to see each other a bit during the game. Should be a lot of fun.

JOIN US ON ZOOM SUNDAY VIA THIS LINK

I know it’s hard to get excited about Dolphins stuff after a big loss, but this team is headed on the right direction and we have two very winnable games coming up. We should be rolling again when we face the Super Bowl champs in three weeks. I can’t wait to see hopefully the first of many games between Tua and Mahomes. In the meantime, let’s raise some money for charity, win some great prizes and stay excited about the future of the Miami Dolphins. Phins up!

Dwight Stephenson Autograph

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