Morning Joe! Tailgating 101

Good morning Rumblers,

For today's Morning Joe, I kind of wanted to hear some of you guys best and worst tailgating stories. I also will like to hear how you tailgate, where you tailgate, and when you tailgate. Do you have any traditions or routines that you follow? Do you have any special recipes, like a Doritos Cheeseburger..lol? What kind of "special" cocktails do you make? Have you ever taken a shot out ot the "bowling ball"? I guess you get the point by now; just tell me your tailgating experiences.

For those of you who never been at the Ralph, tailgating is such a big deal. I'm convinced that it's bigger than the game itself, as its common to see people just show up, park, eat, drink, party and have no tickets to the game. People bring their big Campers and Trucks and have TV's in the back, with satelites. It's truly a great site to see; people playing catch and horse shoes, food is burning on the grill, music is playing, drinks are flowing, Bills jerseys everywhere. For me who grown up loving the Bills and never being able to experience this until my adulthood, it has truly become some of the best moments in my life.

After the jump, I'll share with you my experiences.

Three years ago was the first time I've EVER been tailgating. In fact, it was the first time I ever grilled. It was week 4 or 5 I believe and we were playing against the Browns. My wife and I traveled up to Buffalo from Baltimore to attend our 1st Bills home game. It just so happen it was the same weekend I proposed. I had this bright idea that we were going to go to the stadium at 8:00am and tailgate. So the night before, we go to Wal-mart and buy a little portable grill, food, drinks, charcoal, etc etc. We get back to the hotel and we put all the food and drinks on ice. We get to the Stadium the next morning and I see the Ralph for the first time, and the site of that stadium ran goose bumps don't my back. So we park in this parking lot, which is adjacent to the stadium across the main street. Like a true tailgater I pop out a large bottle of Absolute Vodka and I begin to mix that with Red Bull and Cranberry Juice. Yes, it's only 8:00am, but when in Rome do as the Romans.

So I start setting up the grill and my wife is preparing the food. I go to start the fire and I can't get the fire started. I thought it was simple, put the charcoal down and throw a match on it and boom, you got fire. Apparently, I didn't buy the instant match and I needed lighter fluid and all the other good stuff. So a fellow Bills fan comes over to our set up, and he gives me lighter fluid. I then proceed to drown the charcoal with lighter fluid, I toss a match on this thing and BOOM!, the fire shoots up like 6 feet high. My wife is panicking, because she's afraid that the rental car is going to catch on fire and blow up, haha. I'm laughing like an idiot, because the fire almost burned my eye brows off. The guy comes back and he's like "bro what are you doing", he then goes get his fire extinguisher and puts the fire out. My wife is pissed because she's hungry; I'm semi drunk and little embarassed; this experiment is not working out too well at his point. So the guy says "hey, I'll light the fire for you". So he showed me how to do it and we got the fire going. I put the burgers and hotdogs on the grill, and everything is going smoothly. So at this point, I'm drunk and I start playing catch with the neighboring tailgaters. This guy tells me to run a post and he'll hit me with the pass, Bad idea! I run the post he leads me too far, and bam! The damn football knocks over my little grill. Now my wife is super pissed and I'm super drunk, bad mix. The guy comes back over and he says "hey man, you seem new at this. Let me help you out. You can put your food on my grille, but there is a catch. Whatever is that you're drinking, I want some of it". Hahaha.

Okay its your turn Bills fan, lets hear it!