Tailgating Ideas – Don't Just Tailgate, Tailgate Better

(Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Amanda Green. Amanda is a freelance writer and Buffalo sports nut. She has been going to Bills, Sabres and Bandits games her whole life. Amanda has been writing online for a few years now but loves to write about things near and dear to her like the city of Buffalo. Amanda’s best sports memory was Matthew Baranaby’s playoff hat-trick against Montreal and her worst was the Monday Night Football loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Buffalo.)

As minicamp opens and progresses through June, all NFL fans are getting a better look at their teams for the upcoming season. Most NFL fans are especially fired up to see their new free agent acquisitions and rookie draft class on the field. As a Bills fan I am excited to watch EJ Manuel and Robert Woods highlights while tracking down some clips of Manny Lawson sacks. Even with those to keep me pumped up, the actual season still seems forever away. As many know, people in western New York take tailgating pretty seriously. So take it from me, a Bills fan and tailgater; here are my top three “must have’s” you need at a Ralph Wilson Stadium tailgate. Go Bills!

1. Good Food – Without delicious food, you might find your fellow party-goers lingering off to other spots and leaving you alone to man the grill. Sorry to break it to you, but that vegan burger recipe you found on Pinterest isn’t going to cut it. These blue collar fans are looking for meaty ribs, saucy wings and hearty dips. Of course wings are always present at the Ralph. You can swing by Duffs in Orchard Park just minutes from the stadium, or make your own. Another favorite before game time is an assortment of sausages as Buffalo’s rich German, Polish and Italian history provides some of the best available for grilling.

2. Tailgating Games – Everyone knows you’re here to watch the game. Your adrenaline is pumping, and you can’t wait to hear the first hit. Why delay yourself the satisfaction of the joy of the game? Bring your own tailgating games and really spice things up. Cornhole, ladder ball, washer toss, beer pong, and the list goes on and on. Even if you’re just tossing a football around, the whole parking lot is involved. In my experience, Buffalo has a community atmosphere to tailgating so don’t be surprised to hear a passer-by yelling for you to throw them a long pass.

3. Team Gear – Making sure that Bills logo is visible from all sides is something we take seriously in Orchard Park. The only exception being those in ski-gear for snow games if they can’t fit a jersey over their puffy coat. Other than the ever popular jersey Bills fans are avid supporters of Zubaz paired with a custom t-shirt. Its always fun to have group shirts with either your tailgating crew’s name or perhaps a chirp at the opposing team. Classics include “Squish The Fish” when Miami comes to town once a year.

Being a Bills fan is not a fair-weather occupation and neither is tailgating. Whether it is sunny or snowing, we will be there. Perhaps part of the reason tailgating has turned into a giant family event in Buffalo is because of the struggles of the team. We have each other and it is always a great time no matter what. Part of what makes the scene great is the family atmosphere and respect for each other. Unless the Jets are in town, people tend to keep it family friendly and abide by the rules. Whether you are packing up the grill after a win or loss, Sunday’s in fall are always a blast in Buffalo.

Last month I posted my review of Johnsonville’s Bacon and Cheddar Grillers.  In that post I mentioned that I had another flavor to sample, so that’s what today’s review will be about.  Even though the products are very similar, only the flavors differ, I decided to do a little extra for this review. So please read on for our review of Johnsonville’s Swiss Cheese and Mushroom Grillers.

If you’ll think back to the previous “Grillers” article I spoke about how the flavors were inside of the burger, and that because of this you could add additional toppings that would not be practical otherwise. Well whenever I have a mushroom and swiss burger, I always add bacon.  So I decided to fry up some thick cut bacon to have with these burgers.  I’m also a fan of using BBQ sauce as a condiment on burgers of this type so I decided to do that as well.

The prep for these burgers was basically identical to the previous review with one addition.  I placed a cast iron skillet on my Weber Q100 while the grill was heating up.  After everything was hot I backed the heat down to about medium and started cooking everything.  I found that with the heat at this temp I was about to do about 2 batches of bacon in the time that it took to cook the frozen patties.  As with any ground meat product you want to make sure that you cook them long enough to reach a safe internal temperature. Since the box states that these need to go to 160°F I made sure to follow those directions.  ( I accidentally took these a little further than they needed to be but better safe than sorry.)

For serving purposes I made burgers by smearing some sesame seed buns with a little KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce, added 2 slices of the bacon to each, and then the patties. I also kept one pattie by itself so I could see what the product tasted like by itself.  The burgers were delicious, and on the plain pattie I could definitely taste the mushroom flavor, which was a pleasant surprise, and the swiss cheese was spread throughout.  All in all the Swiss Cheese and Mushroom Grillers are another quality offering from Johnsonville.

I would definitely declare these “Tailgate Approved.”  In fact I think I liked these even better than the bacon and cheddar version.   Johnsonville Swiss Cheese and Mushroom Grillers come in boxes of six patties, and should be available at your local supermarket.  To learn more about Johnsonville products you can visit their website at www.johnsonville.com.  They also have a pretty active social media presence on Twitter @JvilleGrilling and on Facebook.

Bottler openers. Every tailgate kit needs at least one. More than likely you need multiple bottle openers. Finding that perfect bottle opener that is not only functional but shows your spirit as a tailgater and a fan of your team is hard to find. That is until we discovered The Footballer.

The Footballer is first and foremost a bottle opener that fits into the palm of your hand and easily removes bottle caps.

(Disclaimer: We did receive samples of The Footballer for free. The fact these samples were provided to us free of charge in no way influenced our opinion of the product nor did it impact our ability to test and review the product fairly and objectively.)

Before getting into the functionality of The Footballer, let’s take a look at the design of it. As you can see from the photos, The Footballer looks and feels like a real football. It has detailed bumpy pigskin, raised white ribbed laces, black entrenched threads and a little black air hole valve. I played center back in college so I handled a lot of footballs and this little guy looks and feels like a real football. The shape is perfectly sized for fitting into the palm of your hand which will come in handy later when opening up a bottle.

In addition to the look and feel of The Footballer being authentic, they are officially licensed by all 32 NFL franchises and select number of NCAA colleges and universities. Not only can you open up a bottle effortlessly with a bottle opener that looks and feels like a real football, but you can show off your team pride all while doing it. Now that we have covered the top side of The Footballer, let’s take a look at the bottom side and most notably, the bottle opener.

The bottle opener works exactly as you would expect it to work but with a slight twist. (No pun intended.) One aspect I really enjoyed about The Footballer is that the caps when pried off the bottle neck did not end up being bent. Most bottle openers bend the bottle cap or extend the teeth of the bottle cap and thus destroy the integrity of the bottle cap. The Footballer does not do that. Not that it is a big deal but it is nice to have the caps not all bent up in case you wanted to save them for a game of caps later.

An additional feature is The Footballer contains a small but strong magnet above the bottle opener’s “claw”. This magnet is dual function in that it catches the bottle cap as it is taken off the bottle top and also will hold onto any metal surface like a refrigerator door or a bucket of ice cold beers. It will even stick to the side of your car or truck’s tailgate so it is always within arm’s reach when you are out tailgating the game.

Take a look at the different varieties of Footballers sporting the logos of numerous NCAA and NFL teams.

After testing out the samples we were provided and putting them through a number of rigorous tests, we are going to deem The Footballer to be “Tailgate Approved”.

It is small enough to fit in any tailgate kit, it will stick to the side of your vehicle while out tailgating and is priced affordably considering NFL and NCAA licensing is not cheap. Priced at around $13 per opener, this little guy will be a big hit at your next football tailgate party.

For more information and to see which teams they currently have licensing for, visit: FootballOpener.com.

GIVEAWAY

Now for the good part. If you want one of your own, you have two opportunities to win one and have it shipped to you totally and completely for free.

OPTION 1: Facebook – If you are not already a fan of Tailgating Ideas on Facebook, go ahead and click the “Like” button on our official Tailgating Ideas Facebook Page. Once there, find the wall post promoting this blog post and comment on it with your favorite team and why you deserve to win one for free. Be creative, funny, tug at heart strings or outrageous but please do not bore us. The comment we find the most intriguing and creative will get the free Footballer of their choice. Because this is up to our discretion as to who is most deserving based on their comment, put some thought into it and make it a good one.

OPTION 2: Twitter – If you are not already following us on Twitter, go there right now and follow @TailgatingIdeas. Now that you are a confirmed follower on Twitter, go ahead and cut and paste this into a new tweet.

I want to win a free #Footballer bottle opener from @TailgatingIdeas before next season. You can too! Details: http://buff.ly/1bClUw7

The winner will be chosen at random and the more times you tweet the above, the better your odds of winning. (Just please don’t be obnoxious about it to the point your followers start hating us…) The winner will be contacted via Twitter so be on the lookout for a message from us alerting you that you won.

Deadline to like, comment on Facebook and tweet to win a free Footballer of your choice is Monday, June 17th at midnight eastern daylight time. We will contact the two winners on Tuesday, June 18th to alert them they have won. Please refer to The Footballer website to get an idea of which teams are available before you let us know which team you would like for your prize.

No purchase necessary, probably not legal in some states but we are too lazy to get a lawyer and figure it out. Good luck to everyone.

Someone once said, “No man is completely useless; he can always be used as a bad example.” This guy embodies that quote.

Watch the video and although this guy’s technique is horrible from not finishing his beer, his inept spinning routine and failing to get a swing on the can, he does get bonus points for setting off a car alarm by bouncing his head off the bumper.

Listen up people. You are embarrassing yourselves out there in the tailgating parking lots.

Back in 2008 we posted How To Properly Do The Louisville Chugger but apparently nobody is paying attention. This video is proof positive that you all need a refresher course on this topic.

And by the way, please stop calling it “Dizzy Bat“. That name is reserved for 9-year olds doing this without the beer while running up the foul lines in between innings at a baseball game.