When the schedule came out this year the first thing I did was book a trip to Green Bay with a bunch of other members of Dolfans NYC. As the season went on I found out more and more of our crew was going. We had at least 20 people who went but there were probably a lot more than that. When word got out that we were going people kept asking us if we were doing some sort of “Lambeau Takeover” and while we would never disrespect such a holy place as Lambeau like that we did want to throw a tailgate there, but less than a week out we still didn’t have any actual plans. That’s where Ace came in.

Andrew Abramson who you might remember as a Dolphins reporter from the Palm Beach Post reached out to us on Twitter about tailgating. He heard a guy named Ace had a great location about a block away from the stadium so I reached out to Ace to see what his plans were. He is the manager of a store called Extreme Audio in Manitowoc, WI and asked his boss if when the Dolphins played the Packers he could use the Green Bay location to throw a tailgate. Extreme Audio serves as a parking lot during Packers games so his boss said as long as he could still sell the parking spaces Ace could tailgate there.

It seemed like a perfect solution so we offered to buy 7 parking spaces that we could tailgate in as well as some money to pay for food. I reached out to Sailor Jerry and got them to send us some rum to make spiked hot apple cider. I posted on our social about the parking spaces and sold all of them in advance of the game in 24 hours and got the word out to hundreds of Dolphins fans who had made the trip. Ace did all the hard work and got all the food and booze and we went from a small tailgate into a massive event in just five days!

The game itself was a disaster but the Lambeau experience was so amazing. I honestly enjoyed the misery of sitting on cold ass metal bleachers in freezing weather and cheering on my team even though only half of them were there because of all the injuries. The fans in Green Bay are great and they understand we are there to appreciate Lambeau and the amazing history of that holiest of football locations. We got to do a tour of Lambeau the night before and it was really amazing. Every bit of the trip was great except for the actual game.

Oh, I totally forgot. We went by the team hotel after the Lambeau tour and we talked to a couple of players (Stills and Asiata) but we also ran into Tom Garfinkel who for some reason wanted a photo with us (Ace and I) and we ended up hanging out with Nat Moore at the bar and he told us some great stories and argued with us about what players belonged in the Ring of Honor. He also kept telling us about how great the #MetLifeTakeover was which is pretty much the greatest compliment we could get. He was saying how much it means to the players when all you can hear is LET’S GO DOLPHINS in the 4th quarter. Such a fun night.

So yeah, our trip was a great success, I just wish I could say the same for the Dolphins. We also ended up raising $800 for the Green Bay Toys 4 Tots at the tailgate! Thanks to everyone who chipped in, brought some booze, or just hung out. I heard it was the biggest contingent of away fans ever at Lambeau. That’s probably not true, but I am willing to pretend!

Now check out all the photos from the tailgate (and a few from the Lambeau tour) below!

Every football fan should go to Lambeau once in their lifetime and every 8 years Dolphins fans get the chance to see their team play in the football world’s Mecca.  As soon as the schedule came out a group of Dolfans NYC members set our plans in motion. Since then our group has grown and I found out that a bunch of our other members were going as well. When I mentioned we were going on Twitter Dolphins fans all over the country reached out to me about what we were doing for a tailgate. Well, we have finally figured that out!

Former Palm Beach Post Dolphins writer Andrew Abramson reached out to me about a friend of his living in Wisconsin who had a perfect spot for a tailgate. Andrew was a #MetLifeTakeover regular when he was covering the team and knew we were going and wanted to connect. He put me in touch with his friend Ace who got us access to a store called Extreme Audio (757 Mike McCarthy Way) that is only one block from the stadium!  The store acts as a parking lot for Lambeau on Game Day, but the owner is willing to sell us the parking spaces in advance.

Between Andrew, Ace and Dolfans NYC we have purchased 6 spaces that we are going to leave empty for the tailgate as well as a couple of spaces that we are going to be parking in. If you want to park in the lot as well (way cheaper than actual Lambeau parking) email ace@extremeaudio.com and let him know ASAP. There are only about a dozen spots left so first come first serve!

As far as the actual tailgate goes, we will be kicking off at noon, with the game starting at 3:25pm we should have plenty of time to pregame. We have 50 burgers, 50 brats and some vegetarian options. We are gonna have some beer and water, but please BYOB because we aren’t going to have enough for everyone. The tailgate is technically free but we ask everyone to make some sort of donation. After we recoup the funds we spent on food/parking all left over money will be donated to Toys 4 Tots. You can also bring an unwrapped toy as payment as well. Extreme Audio does a Toys 4 Tots fundraiser every year so we figured this was a perfect way to thank them for hosting us and to do some good for the Green Bay community. If you want to donate directly please PayPal us at dolfansnyc@gmail.com. I think a $10 per person donation would be perfect.

So to sum it all up, every Dolphins fan is invited to party with us before the Green Bay game. If you want to eat our food bring $10 or a toy for the charity drive. If you want to park near us make sure you email Ace ASAP. And if you want to drink, please BYOB. Obviously anyone who wants to bring other snacks and stuff we would love it. This should be an amazing experience no matter what happens on the field. Stay warm out there!

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!

2015 #MetLifeTakeover from Dolfans NYC on Vimeo.

Normally spending 10 hours outside in the freezing rain is not my idea of a good time, but on Monday it was a blast. I got to MetLife Stadium about five minutes before the gates open and we rushed to Lot L. We found the nearest empty section and parked under the L8 pole. 15 minutes later we had Phins fans surrounding us. About a half hour later the Jets L8 tailgate showed up… I guess L8 stands for late because they had to take their party down the block. The Takeover had already begun.

Bryan and I set up our merch table and put out a bunch of  free AquaHydrate water and Sailor Jerry rum. Someone showed up with a 30 cup coffee pot and we filled it with hot apple cider. The Sailor and cider was a huge hit and we didn’t even need ice for the AquaHydrate! We had palm tree coolers and someone hung up a Jets piñata and we had people cooking food on either side. We were ready to rock!

Unfortunately the rain started to fall and everything got a little bit miserable. The grilling stopped and the palm trees got blow sideways and a lot of people spent some  time locked in their cars. But the northeastern Phins fans carried on and just started drinking to keep warm. Chants of J-E-T-S Suck Suck Suck and the Dolphins theme song rang out into the semi empty parking lot. There seemed to be a lot more Dolphins fans than Jets fans… certainly in our lot.

By the time Michelle and the four charter buses arrived from Slattery’s we had amassed a huge crowd of Phins fans. The Dolphins showed up with a camera crew and got some great shots as did our in house camera guy. It was a pretty great party despite the weather.

We handed out 200 inflatable palm tress and the 600 Dolfans NYC rally towels that AquaHyrdrate sponsored  and sold some of our warm DolfansNYC hats to those who forgot what NYC in December feels like and I took a bunch of pictures.

Unfortunately the rain deterred some of the Dolphins brass that was planning on attending but we had Brent Grimes’ hilarious wife Miko Grimes stop by again as did Andrew Abramson from the Palm Beach Post.

The game itself was pretty awful and the stands were freezing but I was really impressed with our crew who screamed on every third down and chanted Let’s Go Dolphins throughout the whole game. You could hear us chanting DE-FENSE on TV and the announcers mentioned the Miami crowd several times. Jarvis Landry was specifically asked about us after the game and coach Philbin mentioned us in his opening statement in his post game press conference.

Overall it was a fantastic #MetLifeTakeover and I have pictures to prove it! If you want to download a picture just double click it and it will open Flickr in a new window.

[tylr-slidr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolfansnyc/sets/72157649182994688/[/tylr-slidr]

Michelle and I were lucky enough to attend the Raiders/Dolphins game at Sun Life Stadium last week. I was in Miami on business and Michelle was visiting her family. We got cheap tickets and got there early to tailgate. I got to meet up with the Deep End guys and met a bunch of local crazy Dolfans. Kyshawn from Dolfans NYC was there too and ended up sitting in the Deep End. Very cool. Next time I am in Miami I am gonna figure my way in there…

Anyway, I shot a roll of actual film at the game and I just got it developed. Check out real life 35mm film photographs of the amazing game below. RIP Jim Mandich.

[tylr-slidr userID=”” groupID=””]http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolfansnyc/sets/72157628366234567/[/tylr-slidr]