The story of how one tailgate group returned to Rutgers Football

I missed the good times, and 15 years later I still struggle with it.

After graduating from Rutgers in 2006, I moved to Boston for a while for grad school with no money or the ability to travel for season tickets. As such, I was committed to asking local bartenders to include the Rutgers football game in their satellite TV feeds. Fortunately, Rutgers was pretty good in 2006-2009, so this usually led to a friendly discussion about Rutgers football. Season tickets were always on my mind, and when I graduated and moved back to New Jersey in 2009, I was the first to place an order for season tickets alongside my best friend.

Our season tickets were an annual tradition, tailgate rituals almost as important as football itself. Our tailgate group represented a diverse set of backgrounds and cultures, and ran a revolving kitchen with each tailgate (I still think of this Chilean carne asada with chimichurri-wed, which has just been grilled for us once a year). Several of us, including this author, are artisan enthusiasts. I’m pretty sure no one has met as regularly with rare finds like Alchemists Focal Banger and Heady Topper (sometimes just driven down from Vermont) like our group.

But forget about food and drink. The discussions about Rutgers ’football, among other sports and non-sports-related topics, were a combination of insightful, analytical, and sometimes blasphemous. We all knew our sport, up to the last guy at Rutgers, two deep, and I don’t throw that compliment lightly.

I don’t remember, to be honest, how I met half of the people who eventually became part of our usual tailgate group (a group that ended up being over 20). As we traveled for thirty years in the last decade, and many of us got married, got new jobs, and raised our families, the tailgates were almost standard, six or seven fall days a year. Our tailgate email thread was wide, I helped people a few times in school or workplace statistical analysis, and during the time my family was going through health issues, many tailgate people offered comfort and advice from a professional perspective. We all scratched each other back in every way. We had backdoor friends, we were friends who committed to Rutgers football.

Then everything went away after the 2018 season, when everyone, independently, decided not to renew for the next season.

I guess you could blame Chris Ash for the uninhabited football brand Rutgers had been playing for far too long. But it’s not fair; I am convinced that we would have continued our journey if we had all been in a different life. Many of us were in our second or third child at that point, and the tailgates became too logistically challenging at that point. If this is the kind of thing you can blame for guilt, and I’m not sure it is, most of it is the diffuse brain cloud that formed our tailgate. So as Howard Jones sang in the 80s, no one is to blame.

Many of the tailgate friends were in close contact even after the breakup; the marriage still sees each other on the grills and at the children’s birthday parties (to the extent that they happened, even though they are mostly back). Earlier this year, I asked the group text chain with three other backdoor people the question Are we coming back to 2021?

One friend was immediately in, another was a little low-key but came quickly, and a third needed convincing. For a few months after the occasional obedience, we decided this was the right time. One quick call to our season consultant (which was surprisingly suitable for two really one season tickets to season tickets) and it was resolved. Well come back this season, on the Black Lot grill, grill steaks and listen to The Weeknd (radio friendly versions as the impressive kids throw football next to the tent).

I can’t wait for the tailgate, but I can’t wait for football either. Rutgers football should be interesting at a high level to watch in a way it hasn’t been in at least seven seasons. Win or lose, I don’t think the statement above is controversial, but Rutgers might win a few games this season too, and winning is fun.

Individually and together, this is a fun team set up to ensure that the banks site will get the details in the coming weeks and months, but think at least about what the elderly (4)^th, 5^thand 6^th year). These players deserve every chance that the general home crowd will favor them during the 2021 season.

All of this means that if you’re considering season tickets, now is the time to buy a little Rutgers football, people probably won’t find it easier to get the seats they want in 2022 than they do now. Join the atmosphere, join in the fun, enjoy the football because there is a lot of joy this season. And stop by the Black Lot to greet and discuss Rutgers football if you want.