On Sunday , September 19 , 2021 , theNFL ’s Cleveland Browns played their home opener at FirstEnergy Stadium against the Houston Texans .
The night before , a line of busbar , trucks , cars , and RVs stretchingtwo and a one-half miles longwaited to gain admittance into one of the sports stadium ’s batch — the famed “ Muni Lot”—on South Marginal Road , which would n’t even be subject until 7 a.m. Once the vehicles were permit in , a sea of die - grueling fans poured out into the parking raft to political party in the hours before game time , feasting on barbeque , Burger , and hot dogs until they were lease inside the stadium for starting time . For many , this other - morning revel would last longer than the game itself ; Browns tutor Kevin Stefanski evenwarned fansnot to party too hard and risk missing the opening driveway .
These raucous pregame party played out across every participating NFL stadium that twenty-four hour period , and whether the fans know about the history or not , they were all shoot part in a ritual that may be even older than the game of football itself : Tailgating .
The Origins of Tailgating
While there does n’t seem to be any conclusive cogent evidence , legend has itthat thefirst college football game — spiel in 1869 , between Princeton University and Rutgers University in New Brunswick , New Jersey — was also home to the first football tailgate . But there were no cooler , kegs , or deep frier in sight ; or else , sausages were simply grilled at thetail remnant of a horse , hence the termtailgating .
The fine art of this gastronomic tradition — and if you ’ve walk around atailgatelot on a Saturday or Sunday during football season , you know it is an art — go back even further than that , touching on the aboriginal impulse for food and company .
“ It ’s something in our humanity , ” Tonya Bradford , an associate prof of merchandising at the University of California - Irvine , who ’s researched the story of tailgating , order Mental Floss . “ It ’s a ritual . It ’s about individuality . ”
Eight age before Rutgers and Princeton faced off , a precursor to tailgating took place during a bloodsport of another variety . In 1861 , families and a few member of Congress pack picnic lunchesand some boozeand journeyed from Washington , D.C. to a spot near Manassas , Virginia , by a stream calledBull Run . It was the early stage of the Southern insurrection , which many hoi polloi say would last six months , top . From adjoining hillside , they watched and ate as an outnumbered Confederate force broke the Union soldiers ’ battle line , sending troops and spectators off to a hasty and disorganized retreat and showing that theCivil Warwould not finish as quickly as originally thought . AsAmerican Heritagemagazine put it , this version of tailgating was “ the right estimate at the awry time . ”
Even further before that , public executions in 16th- and 17th - hundred England would havea tailgate standard pressure . concourse of people would show up the night before a hanging for an evening of imbibing and saltation ; then , on the day of the implementation , the upper - class paid an excess fee for prize seats at the gallows , accompanied by spate of food and liquor . likewise , during the French Revolution , looker arrived early to public death penalty to savour a carnival - like climate , perfect with dinner and face - painting near the guillotine site , according toauthor Stanley Karnow .
A Match Made in Pigskin Heaven
Because football game games are typically played just once a calendar week on weekend , it ’s become the ideal sport for tailgating . “ You have time to recuperate , ” Bradford read . “ You have time to pick up . ” And college football game seems particularly appropriate for it , with participants feeding off warm feelings of nostalgia associate with their alma mater . As Bradford explains , many people have a warm affinity for the asylum that ushered them into adulthood and use tailgating as an opportunity to reconnect with old friends .
One of college football ’s most famous game is the yearly Florida - Georgia contest , which has been admit at a neutral site in Jacksonville pretty much every class since 1933 . ( The Florida Gators ' home site is actually in Gainesville . ) In 1958 , the Gators beat out the Bulldogs 7 - 6 in a biz that was so boring , Bill Kastelz of theFlorida Times - Unionwas struck with a moment of author ’s block . louse up for a phrase to satiate out his report , Kastelz see the social consequence that surrounded the game and referred to it as “ the world ’s largest outdoor cocktail political party . ”
The nickname stuck , and even today , the party that kick the bucket on before the secret plan grabs as many , if not more , home newspaper headline than the grid contend itself . It ’s since become the model for tailgating extravagance , withsome estimatesputting the total number of participants at 150,000 each yr .
The Modern Tailgating Phenomenon, Or: The Origins of Engine-Block Salmon
By the 2d one-half of the twentieth 100 , as pro football game was becoming an American obsession , massive multi - purpose stadiums were being construct to hold both MLB and NFL teams . Those stadium were also constructed to accommodate something else : commuter . Many sports stadium built in the early 1900s were near trolley line of products and had little space for parking ( it ’s one of the reasons the Dodgers start looking for a novel stadium in the 1950s , and ultimatelyleft Brooklyn ) . These new multipurpose stadiums were rather surrounded by landed estate of parking lot . This made it easier to throng the car with friends and family line and head to the game every week — and the extra distance in the good deal also made it easier to take along the grillroom and a few six - packs in a cooler .
Tailgating really explode in the past 20 or 30 years , Bradford say , and it ’s estimated that 18 percent of devotee take part in the ritual before a secret plan . Perhaps not coincidently , that time period has also seen the climb of ESPN’sratings Jagannatha , College GameDay , a football pregame show that travels to a different college campus every hebdomad and presents football game analytic thinking and prevision amidst a tailgate aura . As tailgating has become inexorably link to the sport itself , college and team have gain they can monetize the experience by betray particular tailgatemerchandiseand parking passes for specific lots that earmark RVs and other larger vehicle ( usually ata higher price full stop ) to set up store 60 minutes before the plot .
But that ’s led to an blazonry wash as well .
“ Has it experience easier to tailgate ? Yes and no , ” Bradford say . “ More tools are available to do it , but that go to more complex thing . ”
multitude will come to tailgates now with recreational fomite , sometimes with fully - appointed kitchens . Instead of burgers and hot dogs , people might deep - fry a bomb , make a half-pint or lobster boiling point , or even cook a standing rib knock . ( Bradford knows of at least one person who wrapped salmon in aluminum foil and fake it on the engine block of their SUV on the drive to the game . )
That ’s not to say you need to fume a brisket or make the best chilli in the parking lot to enjoy a tailgate — just a passion for a team and an urge to link up to your fellow fanatics . “ There are some thing that have remain major power , and tailgating is one of them , ” Bradford says . “ Even bowl that do n’t allow for tailgating , there are buff that line up a way . It ’s like a mini homecoming . ”
