Opinion: DolfansNYC MetLife Takeover part 1
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins looked as though they were sleeping rather than on a football field last Sunday. Losing to the New York Jets is bad enough but it appeared they didn’t want to be there.
That was not the case however for over 1,000 Miami Dolphins faithful who poured into the stadium parking lot to party before the game. It’s the annual MetLife Takeover event held by the Miami Dolphins fan group DolfansNYC.
This past weekend marked my first trip to the “Big Apple” in my life. I spent Friday evening and all day Saturday traversing the city. Above ground, below ground, and on the water. To be honest, all that rhetoric about New Yorker’s being crass and rude, I didn’t see it. Not once. As one employee from a Starbucks told me, “not all of us are from New York.”
That makes sense because there is a tremendous amount of fan support for the Miami Dolphins in a city that is devoted to the Giants and Jets. In this three-part series we will look at what MetLife Takeover really is in part one. In Part two we will head into the stadium, and finally in part three we will talk to the owner of the bar that DolfansNYC calls home. Why? Because MetlifeTakeover is one event out of 16 in the NFL season for DolfansNYC.
On the night before MTO (MetLifeTakeover) fans crowded into Slattery’s Mid-Town Pub in Mid-Town Manhattan. The pre-takeover party brought fans together to meet and talk about the events on Sunday. I was unable to make this event but heard all about it Sunday morning. I was done missing things this weekend.
I left the Liberty Harbor RV park across the river in New Jersey at 6:00 a.m. and walked the five blocks to the PATH train that would take me into NYC. It was dark and I found the subway to be surprisingly crowded on this Sunday morning. I rode to 33rd street and climbed the steps into Mid-Town Manahattan where I was not only greeted with daylight but also Miami Dolphins fans walking towards Slattery’s.
The first person I ran into was Paul Picken, Jr. my former co-host on FinsRadio’s, On the FinSide. He and I chatted it up a bit before I left for the pub. I could already see the busses, four of them, lined up outside and a lot of fans standing out front waiting to board their assigned bus. Inside fans checked in and upstairs they sold DolfansNYC merchandise. The proceeds of which go to charity.
Each bus held 56 people and all four were filled. Fans chatted and chanted as the busses left NYC and the cheers grew loud when MetLife Stadium came into view.