The Dolphins only play on Monday Night Football once this year, and it happens this Monday. Get excited people, it’s our first crack at the New England Patriots.

Last week was a disaster at least our offense came to play. If the Dolphins offense plays like it did last week we should be able to put 50 points on the Patriots. Unfortunately the Patriots offense has two things the Dolphins have proved they can’t stop… Tight Ends.

The Patriots have two fantastic pass catching tight ends and I have to admit I am pretty worried about how we are going to stop them. That being said we are historically pretty good at home against the Patriots and we have to come up big in prime time, especially after last week. We must win this game.

Now a few important things. We will be at Third & Long as always watching the game. For those who haven’t been yet, it’s at 35th and 3rd Ave in the city.

Come early! We have had a little bit of a line at times. Everyone get’s in but you might have to wait a little bit. If you get there 30 minutes early you won’t have a problem. Third and Long has good MNF drink specials so they have a bit of a regular crowd there, so we gotta get there early and make sure we have the whole place to ourselves.

We WILL be doing a raffle this week. I know I promised a raffle last week but Michelle was out of town and we didn’t get it together in time. We will be raffling off a Dolphins hat signed by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross as well as a really nice Dolphins jacket that he gave us. We will also probably have a bar tab do give away and a Dolfans NYC shirt.

Speaking of shirts, we ran out of L and XL shirts so fast that we haven’t really been selling them the last couple weeks, but I got new shirts printed and we should have every size available. They are 15 dollars and are aqua with the DolfansNYC logo on them.

Lastly, I just wanted to mention the tickets to the Jets game. If you have talked to Michelle about buying tickets, please bring your money on Monday. She put 36 tickets on her credit card and needs to start collecting money. We want to order more tickets as well, so if you want to go with us to the Jets/Dolphins game in NYC, email Michelle ASAP at dolfansnyc@gmail.com.

Okay! See you Monday and remember almost all the money raised from the raffle and the t-shirts goes to the Miami Dolphins Foundation charity. The only money that doesn’t go to charity goes to club expenses like printing shirts, promoting the club and prizes for the raffles. So please, be generous. And if you would like to just donate money please let us know. We are trying to raise $1500 as a group. Thanks!

DolfansNYC had a little run in at the 2010 NFL Draft with none other than Paul “Fitzy” Fitzgerald.  Fitzy is some sort of YouTube clown who likes to dance around and make jokes about football.  He was wearing a very cute Brady throwback, which I am sure confused him at first since he probably wasn’t aware New England had a football team before 2001.  Anyway, this guy overcame all the “18 and 1” and  “Fuck Tom Brady” chants long enough to ask some football fans some questions.  I asked him one myself “How’s Wes Welker’s knee doing?”  He had a cute response I am sure, but I try not to pay attention to what anyone from Boston has to say.

Eventually we came together in our hatred of the Jets, and I led DolfansNYC in a lovely J-E-T-S Suck Suck Suck chant around the 3:25 mark in the video. In all seriousness, Fitzy, aka Nick Stevens is a pretty funny dude and this video is well worth watching. Enjoy.

I bought a Ted Ginn, Jr. jersey before the start of the 2009 season and targeted him in the middle rounds of my fantasy football drafts.

It’s easy to forget now, but after Ginn’s terrific sophomore campaign, he had “third-year breakout” written all over him.  In 2008 — when the Dolphins went 11-5 and won the AFC East — he led the team in catches (56), receiving yards (790), return yards (711), and all-purpose yards (1,574; 18th in NFL), while scoring four touchdowns (two receiving and two rushing).  Those numbers may not jump off the page, but they stacked up very favorably to several All-Pro wide receivers who blossomed after their second seasons, including Steve Smith (1.0) and Santana Moss (not to mention, Steve Smith (2.0) and Sidney Rice last season).

Of course, Ginn didn’t come close to living up to the expectations thrust upon him as the Dolphins number one WR, taking a major step backwards to the point of being benched in favor of rookie Brian Hartline.  Ginn had only 38 receptions on the year, tied for 69th among WRs, and his 11.95 yards per reception tied him for 68th with 74-year-old 32-year-old Laveranues Coles.  He dropped nine passes — Dolphins fans would argue that’s actually being generous — which tied him for fourth in the league behind Dwayne Bowe (11), Vernon Davis (11), and Santonio Holmes (10).

Despite his struggles on offense, however, Ginn was sensational on special teams.  While his critics often lamented him for avoiding contact by running to the sidelines, Ginn led the league in yards per touch (17.9), ranked fifth in kickoff return yards (1,296), fifth in yards per return (24.92), 10th in all-purpose yards (1,826), and tied for fourth in non-offensive touchdowns (2).

He single-handedly led the Dolphins to a road victory against the New York Jets on November 1, 2009, becoming the first player in NFL history to record two 100-yard return TDs in the same game (and in one quarter, no less), on a day when the Dolphins mustered just 104 total yards on offense.  I proudly wore my Ginn jersey, just as I did on every other game day, and heard his name praised for perhaps the only time that season.

The very next week, the Dolfans’ love-hate relationship with Ginn was right back on, as he was yet again getting blamed for a loss to the New England Patriots.  He managed just one catch for seven yards, dropping several passes late in the game, and wasn’t as dramatically effective in the return game.

Once the Dolphins acquired Brandon Marshall from the Denver Broncos last week, Ginn became immediately expendable.  The San Francisco 49ers acquired him for a fifth-round pick (145th overall), hoping to use him as a situational deep threat while reviving one of the league’s worst return games.  Still only 25 years old and among the fastest and most athletic players in the league, he leaves Miami with 128 catches for 1,664 yards, a modest 34.7 receiving yards per game average, and five receiving touchdowns over three seasons.

For Ginn, it’s a fresh start in a place where he doesn’t have to deal with the giant shadow of being selected ninth overall in 2007, and hearing the boos that have haunted him since draft day, when fans were hoping to land Brady Quinn (how did that one turn out?).   While he certainly didn’t produce as well as expected, he was routinely forced to play a role that wasn’t suited to his strengths and became the scapegoat for the team’s offensive struggles.

Could Ginn have been better utilized in the slot and opposite Marshall, a true number one possession receiver?  Could he have stretched the field and found himself wide open down the field when Marshall faced double teams?  At the very least, could a proven return specialist, whose role will now need to be filled by the undoubtedly slower Davone Bess, Patrick Cobbs, and Brian Hartline, have made the offense more productive and dangerous than any player the Dolphins can draft in the fifth round?

“I wouldn’t say a sense of relief, but it’s always good to have a new start,” Ginn said. “Leaving Miami, I don’t hold any grudges, no bad feelings about anything. My time was up there. I enjoyed it there, and now it’s time to move on.”

I truly hope that he does well in San Fransisco, and while I’ll always cheer for Miami, I’ll be sure sure to wear my Ginn jersey the next time he plays against the Dolphins.

Normally I would be posting pictures right now but I failed to take any last week.  I am not sure if it was the fact that the game was on TV, or the fact that we got embarrassed by Buffalo the week before but I hate to say Third and Long was a little dead Sunday.  It filled up a little by half time, but by then I was too busy biting my fingernails to take any pictures.  Fortunately we some how managed to pull the game out with a dominant second half and we got some good video as seen in the last post.  The good thing about the game was that the 20 or so people who were there were die hards and the place was going absolutely insane. We all went down to the Patriots bar and did shots, it was a great game.  Plus some cute female Dolfans offered me sexual favors in trade for my Cliff Engle sweater, which was a pretty fun way to spend the afternoon.  Just kidding, I still have the sweater.

Anyway, things get really exciting with that win and a few losses around the league.  With Baltimore and Pittsburgh losing things are looking pretty good for the Dolphins if they win the next four games.  All four games are against AFC teams with a shot at the playoffs so everyone is going to be huge… Assuming we keep winning.  So here’s how it works.  If we win all four games we can get in if Baltimore loses ANY game or if New England loses any (they have three) AFC game.  If we win out and New England loses to the Bills, Jags or Texans we win the AFC East.  If they lose to Carolina it goes to like the 5th tiebreaker and things get really weird. That’s not worth talking about.  Brady is hurting though, and they have two AFC games on the road where they haven’t played well.  Baltimore on the other hand has a pretty easy schedule with the Lions, Bears and Raiders left, but they do have a tough matchup against Pittsburgh in week 16.  Also, the Raiders are a dangerous team despite their record, and the Ravens have to travel to Oakland after being on the road against Pitt.  Should be exciting if the Dolphins can keep winning.  Their biggest test might be Jacksonville this Sunday.  We better see you out at Third & Long.

And since I don’t have any photos, I wanted to leave you with this, a shout out from Dolphins starting inside linebacker Akin Ayodele.

Go Dolphins!

Normally you guys would see a video from Third and Long here, but this week we have something a little different for you. I kept meaning to take out the video camera and film all of the awesome people of DolfansNYC, but the Miami Dolphins kept the game very interesting today and I just couldn’t bring myself to move my attention away from the TV. But, I can tell you that the energy at the bar was amazing, the celebrations were huge and the singing was LOUD!

Last week was a tough loss and it might have killed our chances at the playoffs, but at least the Patriots lost and if we beat them today everything gets a lot more interesting. Despite the loss everyone had a lot of fun at Third and Long last week and we hope to see everyone back out again this afternoon.
Remember, the game was flexed from 8PM to 1PM so make sure you are at the bar by 1245 anxiously awaiting kick off!

Also we wanted to mention a few other things:

Short Michelle has been taking drum lessons and on Wednesday she is going to be performing the Monday Night Football theme decked out in Dolphins gear as part of her drum schools student showcase. Come out and support her.

Wednesday, Dec 9th
7pm – 9:30pm
Arlene’s Grocery @ 95 Stanton Street
$12 cover

Also the Miami Dolphins sent us an email asking us to plug their new web show called the 5th Quarter Show. Every week after the game they are going to be doing a live post game online featuring Bary Buetel and Nat Moore. Already they have a bunch of videos up and you should check it out. It seems like it should be pretty great.

Lastly if you have anything Dolphins related you would like to see in the weekly email or on the DolfansNYC website, please let us know. We would love to get more people involved!

Thanks a bunch! Go Dolphins!

I don’t even want to talk about it.  I am not sure if it’s better or worse that New England got killed today. We should be playing for first place next week.  Kill me.

Double click the slide show to get to the gallery on Flickr so you can download the pictures.

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It took me a few days to get back to the computer after that awful loss against the Patriots.  We just seem to want to throw away these winnable games. Still, our fund raiser nearly doubled what we were trying to raise and we are going to be able to give the I Will Foundation a pretty decent check.  I think people had a lot of fun.  I only shot a few photos because I hadn’t slept and because I was freaking out about the game, but the ones I shot are pretty nice. You should check them out below.  As always double click the slide show to get to our Flickr site and download the pictures.  We will have video up soon.

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This is the turning point in our season.  If we can beat the Cheatin’ Pats we can be 4-4 and just a game out of first place in the AFC East with a 4-0 division record.  If we win this game, we have a soft schedule ahead with a home game against the Patriots and only two other games against teams over .500. If we lose we are 3-5 and three games behind the Patriots.  This is a must win if there ever was must win in the first half of a season. And we might have to do it without Crowder and big Jason Ferguson. Yikes.

Now, to celebrate this momentous game DolfansNYC is throwing a party.  We are doing a big fundraiser for the game that hopefully you have heard about.  We are going to have 40 bracelets available for $10 each which get you delicious catered food and a raffle ticket.  We will also have raffle tickets available for $1 each. We know we have promised raffles before, but this time we are actually doing it. We have Dolphins signed items and some other random Dolphins stuff available. We are getting there at noon, and if the turnout is anything like the Saints game, the food is going to go fast, so get there early.

The proceeds from this fundraiser are going to be split between DolfansNYC and our adopted charity the I Will Foundation.  The goal of this club from the begining was not only to bring fans together to watch “the greatest football team” but to try to do some good.  We have spent a lot of money putting this thing together and are trying to recoup it so we can do more stuff for the club.  But on top of that we want to raise money for charity and the I Will Foundation is a foundation helping injured people that was started by the owner of Third & Long.

Anyway, Michelle is going to be there before the bar even opens decorating the place and setting everything up.  Come hungry, there is going to be a lot of food. It should be crazy so I hope to see you all out there.  I am in Texas at my cousins wedding but managed to find a flight that lands me in JFK at 1130. It will be a mad rush to Third & Long straight from the airport.  Let’s hope I make it.

Go Dolphins!