2023 NFL Draft
Another year, another NFL Draft. If you don’t know by now, I run Dolfans NYC a nonprofit that raises money for charity through watch parties and events surrounding the Miami Dolphins. It started out with about 30 of us and has grown to thousands. It’s probably most successful thing I have done with my life and the whole thing is honestly surreal. Through the club I have been able to do some very cool things, like get really, really good tickets to the NFL Draft.
Dolfans NYC started doing group NFL Draft trips in 2008 when we had the first pick. The Draft was in NYC every year back then and we continued going until the Draft moved and started going from city to city. In 2018 the NFL came up with the “Inner Circle”, small groups of die hard fans that would be grouped by team in front of the stage, essentially making it easy for the NFL Network and ESPN camera crews to film sections of excited groups of fans for every team. I am usually not the kinda person who wants to be in any sort of spotlight, but getting on TV during the NYC Drafts got so many local Dolphins fans to google us that we sort of made it our mission to continue using the Draft as a marketing tool and have tried to make it to as many of these as possible. So far I have been to Dallas, Cleveland and Las Vegas for the Draft, and this year I made it to Kansas City.
The Dolphins didn’t have a first round pick this year so I almost didn’t go, but I had never been to KC and it was sort of a bucket list city for me. Dolfans NYC had airline miles and I told my friend Ivan that if he got the hotel room I’d bring him with me. He was down and off we went.
The Kansas City Draft was the biggest one yet. It was absolutely packed with people and over a huge space. Fortunately my back has been doing great recently and while I was in a ton of pain, it was bearable which wouldn’t have been the case a couple months ago. We eventually made our way to the Inner Circle area and joined up with all the other crazy fans. I am as diehard as a Dolphins fan as they come, but I don’t compare to some of these guys. So many of the Inner Circle crew are the costumed lunatics that are always on TV during NFL broadcasts and there’s nothing I love photographing more than passionate fans of anything, especially when they look so photogenic.
Aside from the fans I also got to photograph some of the draft picks themselves. I didn’t have a press credential (maybe I should actually apply for one next year), so I couldn’t really shoot on stage, but I did get a few shots of the Draft picks coming out before security started cracking down on people near the front. I probably could have gotten away with a lot more if I wasn’t in all Dolphins gear, but what are you gonna do? I also got decent shots of Christian Gonzalez and Jaxon Smith-Njigba when they came out to the crowd because our section was near the Patriots and Seahawks sections. I also got photos of famous YouTubers Ryan Trahan and Donald De La Haye aka Deestroying which you can ask your kids about.
As far as the Dolphins picks? Well we only had four because we traded a bunch away for some very good players and our owner tried to sign Tom Brady while he was still under contract with the Bucs so we got a pick stolen from us which honestly I didn’t appreciate for a bunch of different reasons. But I think we got a couple exciting players anyway. Oh, and we did make it on TV.
Anyway, let’s look at some photos. These are uploaded to the Dolfans NYC Flickr because why upload them twice and I already did a post over there so let me live. At least this one is way longer because I am fully caffeinated and I don’t have to explain the concept of Dolfans NYC to them.
Click here to see all my photos from the 2023 NFL Draft in Kansas City, MO.
