Every year I go over this so let’s make it quick… If you didn’t know by now, my friend Michelle and I founded a Dolphins fan club called Dolfans NYC near the end of the 2008 NFL season. What started as a way to get enough people into a sports bar so that we could sound and the big TV turned into the biggest Miami Dolphins fan club in the world and a non-profit organization that has raised six figures for charity. It’s probably the most successful thing I have ever done. Even though Michelle moved to South Florida nearly a decade ago and I left the city in 2024 we still run the club and spend months organizing our biggest fundraiser of the year: The Metlife Takeover.
The Takeover, Written as #MetLifeTakover since it was the 2010s when we came up with it, is a huge tailgate we throw around the yearly Dolphins game in New Jersey when they come up to play their division rivals, the “New York” Jets. We started organizing these trips in 2009 back before Metlife Stadium was even built, and by the time it was officially called the #MetLifeTakeover we were bringing hundreds of people, peaking at more than 1400 in 2023.
This year was not our peak. Coming into the season the sentiment around the Dolphins was low and getting blown out the first week of the season followed by losing 5 out of the next 6 games was soul crushing to the fan base, and decimated ticket sales. The cold December game didn’t help much either, but then the Dolphins destroyed our hated rivals the Buffalo Bills and haven’t lost a game since. As the Jets game grew closer game ticket sales started coming in and amazingly we sold 40% of our tailgate tickets in just the last week before the game.
Despite the strong last minute sales, it was still the lowest attended #MetLifeTakeover in years and I was pretty worried it ended up being a blast. We had a great crowd and it was a lot less stressful. Tailgate lines were shorter, the weather held up and we didn’t need a bunch of volunteers. We sold a ton of t-shirts at half price to clear out inventory so we can make all new merch next year. We did a 50/50 raffle that raised over $600 for charity and the winner happened to be a school teacher who said she was going to use her winnings for school supplies for kids so it was a real win/win. The game itself was an absolute blowout with the Dolphins going up 21-0 in the first half and it made for a just a really great day.
I always do a terrible job documenting these events because I am so busy throwing them but I wanted to share with you some of my shots anyway. It’s been such a weird life being a Dolphins fan when most of my friends don’t like sports (or in the case of my fiance, absolutely despise them), but it’s great to have found a community to watch football with and to do some good for charity in the process. Check out my photos below!
