Get excited because this is the first time in years the #MetLifeTakeover recap video came out before the season was over. Luckily our director and editor, Curtis Edward Paul, has some free time right after the Takeover and was able to finish the whole things in a couple of weeks. That being said, this video was released on social media before the Cowboys game and I am just now getting around to putting the video thanks to visiting family for the holidays and then not wanting to think about football for a few days after the butt kicking the Ravens put on us. Pain.
But yeah, the video is up and it’s amazing. It features interviews with a lot of the regulars like Nat Moore, Joe Rose, Solo D, 2023 Fan of the Year Chris Barker, plus interviews with Frank The Tank, Mary Martinez, the viral elementary school teacher and more. Another viral Dolfan, Kickball Dad, made the video as well. This year wasn’t officially our biggest event ever, but only because the Jets would only sell us around 950 seats. It was the first time we have ever sold out before the season even started, the most busses we have ever had and I know our section had thousands of Dolphins fans because people bought up every ticket in section. The secondary prices in our section was like $80 more than anywhere else in the upper decks. The video very much reflects how amazing our party was.
Shout out again to Urban Tailgate for helping us throw this party, DJ D Rell and crew for the music, Oscar Collazos for hosting the video, all our volunteers and of course all of you guys who came out to party with us.
Now hopefully the Raven’s game has been pushed down into the deepest parts of your brain and you can actually enjoy this video. We worked really hard on it. Phins up!
The #MetLifeTakeover was a huge success this year and I just want to thank all of you for making it amazing. We weren’t able to get as many tickets this year because the Jets thought they were gonna be good this year (lol), but we sold out before the season even started and gave out our section number to the hundreds and hundreds of people who emailed us requesting tickets too late. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had 2500 Dolphins fans sitting together because our sections were packed. With the great tailgate and the Dolphins dominating on the field it was just an amazing day.
Speaking of the tailgate, we had a huge crowd all day and a video I took from the top of our U-Haul went viral, being reposted by tons of national media outlets, and even a local TV station reached out about using it, although I have no idea if they actually did. Speaking of TV, the film crew from HBO’s Hard Knocks came out to the tailgate, interviewed Michelle and I as well as some other fans and did a short segment during episode two of the show. If you didn’t watch the episode you can watch the short segment here.
We had some cool guests at the tailgate this year. Dolphins legends Joe Rose and Nat Moore never miss a tailgate but we also had a couple of social media stars, with Kickball Dad returning to the Takeover to film some videos, and elementary teacher extraordinaire Mary Martinez celebrated her 30th birthday with us. We had two Miami Dolphins Fans of the Year in attendance, Dolphreaky and the newest Fan of the Year Chris Barker. Solo D performed as he always does and my cousin came out because her husband is a huge Dolphins fan and that was really cool for me.
On the charity front, we raised over $6000 just from raffle and merch sales and that doesn’t include the money we made from ticket sales. We are unfortunately dealing with some possible unexpected expenses because of an unfortunately incident that we won’t get into, but we should be able to donate over $10,000 to charity this year. We will be announcing donations as they happen on Twitter but hopefully at the end of the year I can do a run down of the good that money is doing. By the way, all donations to us are tax deductible so if anyone is interested in donating please reach out.
Shout out to DJ Drell, our new regular Slattery’s DJ for killing it at his first #MetLifeTakeover and Solo D for his yearly performance. Solo came to the second or third one of these we ever did and hasn’t missed one since. He’s become such a huge part of our tailgate experience. Thanks as always to our tailgate partners Urban Tailgate. Those guys take everything off our plate and handle all the food, drinks, games and simple stuff like getting there hours before the gates open to make sure we get our regular spot. And lastly, huge thanks to all our volunteers who we couldn’t do any of this without. From our bus captains, to the people selling merch and raffle tickets, to just random people who grab a bin from the bus and bring it over to the tailgate for us, we appreciate you guys a ton.
Anyway, I did a terrible job of documenting the event, but I did technically take some photos, so I got a gallery of stuff for you guys to look through. Don’t worry though, we will have one hell of a recap video for you guys coming a lot sooner than last year’s video. I can’t wait for you to see it.
Despite 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.
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.)
Huge congratulations to everyone who won our raffles and social media giveaways. It was great to be able to do something that felt a little like #MetLifeTakeover week even if we didn’t actually get to be together. We gave away three Don Shula memorial Yearbooks/ Dolfans NYC swag packs, a Mercury Morris signed photo, an actual seat back from the Dolphins stadium, ball signed by Dwight Stephenson, a Flo Knows shirt and of course the incredible Brian Flores signed game used helmet. I honestly am pretty upset I wasn’t allowed to buy tickets.
On the football side of things it was great to see the Dolphins play a pretty mediocre game and still win. That’s not something Dolphins fans are used to and a sign of a good team. I know the Jets are one of the worst teams in NFL history but even when we made huge mistakes at no point was I ever worried that we were going to lose. It’s nice to have that feeling during a game, especially when I was having to help moderate the Zoom meeting as well. Let’s do it again next week.
And finally check out this video RizeOptix put together for us from his last two years of filming #MetLifeTakeovers for us. As always shout out to Solo D for our Dolfans NYC anthem that we used for the video. Phins up!
It’s finally here! The 2018 #MetLifeTakeover video took us forever to finish, but I think the results are worth waiting for. For the second year in a row the video was directed/edited by RizeOptix and hosted by comedian Oscar Collazos. We loved their work on the 2017 Takeover video and we were glad they could do it again. We have actually teamed up with RizeOptix again to work on something special for our 10th anniversary next year, but don’t tell anyone!
The video is of course a recap of the 2018 #MetLifeTakeover during our week 2 win against the Jets at MetLife Stadium. It features footage from our Saturday night pre-party at Slattery’s Midtown Pub, our massive tailgate and we got some pretty amazing footage from inside the game as well. In past years we didn’t have a ton of footage from inside the stands but this year we got some great stuff including footage from across the stadium where you can see how fully we took over the upper deck.
The video includes interviews with Dolphins alumni Mark Clayton, Mark Duper, Kim Bokamper, Joe Rose and Nat Moore who were all at the tailgate. Additionally there are interviews with Jason Jenkins who is one of our biggest supporters in the Dolphins organization, musician Solo D and a bunch of Dolfans. We unfortunately had to cut some of the fan interviews because we had so many, but you might see them as Instagram videos next year!
Before we get to the video I just wanted to give some shoutouts: The Dolphins organization for always supporting our club, the Jason Taylor Foundation for donating a signed JT jersey for our raffle (We ended up raising $2000 for the Foundation!), Urban Tailgate for doing all the hard work for our pregame party, Sailor Jerry for providing a ton of rum, Slattery’s as always for all the help on a day where we are actively taking people AWAY from their bar and of course everyone who came out, supported us, spread the word or donated anything to the charity. We have raised tens of thousands of dollars over the 10 years we have been doing this and we couldn’t do any of it without you guys.
See you guys next year for the 10th anniversary of Dolfans NYC! We will be doing TWO #MetLifeTakeovers as the Dolphins play both the Jets and the Giants next year!
Okay, it’s video time! Please share this with all your fellow Dolfans and let us know what you think! Oh, and make sure you watch until the very end!
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!
Tonight is Monday Night Football and in celebration today the 2015 #MetLifeTakeover video is here! The Dolphins might have lost the game but looking back in 10 years hopefully all we will remember is how much fun we had!
This video was shot by Greg Jeske and edited and hosted by Alex Bente. It featured interviews with Nat Moore, Tom Garfinkel, Andrew Abramson, Solo D, The Fintroopers and even Ace Ventura! Plus there is dancing… lots of dancing!
Thanks again to our sponsors Pabst Blue Ribbon, Sailor Jerry and AquaHydrate! Thanks to everyone who helped with the tailgate and everyone who helped with this video!
Honestly I don’t really know what else to say but watch the video and show it to everyone! Phins up!
This season has obviously been disappointing and Sunday was pretty much a disaster on the field but off the field we had a hell of a time. It’s hard to explain to someone who has never been to a #MetLifeTakeover but there is truly no better experience as a Miami Dolphins fan. Obviously I am a bit biased but when you get to tailgate with hundreds of fans and then all walk in and sit with 1000 Dolfans and make so much noise that you can hear us on TV even in a disaster of a game it’s the greatest feeling in the world.
In the fourth quarter we were getting killed and for some reason most of the Jets fans had already left the game. A lot of Dolphins fans had left too, but our section was still filled with a ton of die hards. The Dolphins scored and we sang the fight song as loud as we could. We then recovered and onside kick and were cheering like crazy. Then, the Dolphins being the Dolphins, we fumbled the ball and the few remaining Jets fans started laughing at us. I turned to our remaining crowd and started chanting “Let’s Go Dolphins” as loud as I could. The rest of crew joined me and all you could hear was “Let’s Go Dolphins” despite just turning over the ball on the fourth quarter of a blow out. It was one of my proudest moments as a Dolphins fan.
It’s easy to be a fan when you are winning. It takes something special to root for your team when you are terrible. Reshad Jones Tweeted “When you winning, everyone is your friend, it’s easy to be on the wagon, so a SPECIAL shout-out to the ride or die fans!!” and we showed everyone we are out here riding for our team!
Now, about the tailgate!
We had a blast! Our four busses made it to the tailgate by 9am so we had hours to party. DJ Tropic DJ’d the whole thing which really upped the game from the last few years. Solo D and his Miami Sports Music/ DWA crew perform. We had a catered tailgate and Pabst Blue Ribbon donated 600 beers! We had water from AqauHydrate and Sailor Jerry Rum & cider. We are so lucky to have such rad sponsors.
We raised nearly $3000 through donations and merch sales which when you add to the money we made at the #MetLifeTakeover Pre-Party was close to $5000 that we can donate charity for the weekend not including the money we made from ticket sales. Plus we had a ton of people bring toys to continue the toy drive we did from the night before. Really amazing. Thanks so much everyone!
We had some cool guests at the tailgate as well. Dolphins legend Nat Moore and CEO Tom Garfinkel showed up at the tailgate which is always awesome. They have been big supporters of what we do up here. We also had Andrew Abramson from the Palm Beach Post and Brent Grimes infamous wife Miko show up as well. Miko has come to all our tailgates and this is Andrew’s second one so I appreciate the support from them. We even had some Jets fans come by to talk some smack. But they are the guys responsible for flying banners over the Patriots practices to troll them so I guess they aren’t so terrible.
Anyway, it was a terrible game but another amazing experience. Let’s just hope next year’s Takeover isn’t on Thanksgiving so we can bring out even more Dolfans and get another win. Since the first big #MetLifeTakeover this is our only loss so I think we are doing pretty well overall. Phins up!
Last weekend I headed down to DC with a van full of Dolfans NYC members to support our brothers to the south. NOVA Dolfans and The Valley Finatics were doing their best #MetLifeTakeover impression in Washington called the DC Shutdown. After the NOVA Dolfans came to our takeover a few years ago they were really inspired and spent nearly two years planning this thing. Dolfans NYC did all we could to help them with this thing but they really killed it last weekend and I am glad we had a bunch of our crew there to support them.
Saturday night there was a party at the Mellow Mushroom in Herndon, VA. It’s the NOVA Dolfans home base and although a hippie pizza place is an odd choice for a sports bar, it was a blast. Solo D did his thing and our buddies Paul Picken and Stephen Daniels hosted the event all night. Even OJ McDuffie showed up! It was great.
The next day there was a huge tailgate but Dolfans were EVERYWHERE. DC only gets a Dolphins game every 8 years and it’s an easy drive from NYC all the way down to North Carolina. Ever Phins fan on the east coast seemed to be there and we actually ended up tailgating with a totally different crew because they let us use their grill (the NOVA guys had a catering company). Of course we still made our appearances and partied with those guys for a while.
The game itself left a lot to be desired but in the end we got a win and Dolfans totally took over the game. The DC Shutdown crew was in one end and then all the Dolfans that bought tickets on their own seemed to be on the visitors sideline lower level. The combination of these to huge packs of Phins fans with the hundreds of other Dolfans there created a lot of noise and you could hear us clearly on TV. The whole thing was a blast.
I thought I was going to take a ton of photos during the party and the tailgate but I ended up doing none of that. I did get a big group portrait at the Mellow Mushroom and a nice shot of my friend Kathleen doing a selfie with OJ McDuffie so I figured I would post those two shots but that’s really all I got.
Anyway, see you guys on Sunday at 4pm at Slattery’s Midtown Pub! I can’t wait to get back to our bar! Phins up!
Despite 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.
I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on our virtual #MetLifeTakeover event. I think yesterday went just about as well as we could have possibly planned. 
