Crisp breezes abound, leaves crunch underfoot, the temps are dropping, and excitement is rising. Autumn has returned, and with it, a new season of tailgating.
Gone are the days of broken folding chairs, cheap beer, and stale pretzels. The modern-day pregame tailgate is as big a deal as the game — and often lasts even longer.
Being good sports, we’ve gone ahead and drafted you a roster of tailgating essentials: garb, grub, and gear of top comfort, prime taste, and great convenience. Follow this playbook, and, come kickoff, you may just decide to stay in the lot and stream the game.
Garb
1. Personalized Outdoor Hooded Sweatshirt Blanket
A trick play combo of a hoodie and blanket, this roughly 4-foot-by-5-foot comfort cloak wraps the average-sized individual from head to shin in plush polyester, lined with faux lambswool sherpa. Don’t fear any drinks, dirt, or dog paws — stains are all part of the game — as this bleacher bathrobe is machine washable and dryable. For postgame portability, this nylon carrying strap add-on, fitted with buckles and reinforced at stress points, makes for compact and secure storage.
2. School Spirit Personalized Scarf
A fine keepsake for players, parents of athletes, alumni, and fans alike, this 8-inches-by-5-feet fleece scarf is a next-level take on the classic neck warmer, made one of a kind by its personalization options. Your choice of number and text appears at each end (on both sides), and with 14 colors to choose from, and two color choices per scarf, your squad’s unique color combo is most likely available. Also produced in a smaller women’s style or sherpa lined for those late fall or night games.
3. NFL Personalized Apron
In front of the grill is a magnificent place to be, though certainly not a clean one. To protect pricey jerseys, vintage team tees, or whatever your tailgate uniform may consist of, a high-quality apron is a must-have. Our NFL-logoed version comes personalized with two lines of text, an adjustable neck strap, and a large quad-pocket for grill tools and towels. This thing is heavyweight 100% cotton, full length and wide cut, plus machine washable — though if you ask us, a little grease on the uniform is proof of an all-out effort.
Gear
4. Personalized Collapsible Cooler
Showing up to a tailgate empty handed is just poor sportsmanship. Rather than lugging your liquid contribution around in a plastic cooler, impress the other guests with this light yet durable, insulated polyester model. It fits 28 cans, includes a retractable bottle opener, and, when empty, collapses to the size of a large Frisbee (with a 3-inch depth). The intelligent zip design keeps the lid from tearing off, and the custom monogram is a great touch to help prevent a loss of possession.
5. Credit Card Size Bottle Opener
Few tailgate dilemmas compare to drinks you can’t open, and this credit card-sized bottle opener, an easy wallet stash, is bound to enable many clutch plays this year. Made of brush-finished stainless steel, round edged for safe handling, and custom printed with a name of your choosing, this hideaway top-popper is both a prized personal asset and no-brainer gift, bound to stay active even in the offseason.
6. Padded Stadium Seat
No matter the matchup, spending hours sitting on a cold aluminum bench is a poor game plan. This custom-embroidered padded seat, however, is a strategy every fan in the stands can envy. At a tailgate, this spine-saver can also make a shabby lawn chair comfy, and after hours of aggressive relaxation, it folds and clips shut with an easy-carry shoulder strap.
7. Personalized Slim Can Cooler
Though beer is a tailgate’s forever beverage, we have decidedly entered the age of spiked seltzer drinks, most served in tall, thin cans. It can be hard finding a koozie that fits a seltzer can’s shape, and even harder to keep track of yours once you do. To achieve victory and retain the title, this neoprene, seam-stitched slim can cooler comes in 19 colors, personalized with your own message. Doting parents take note: It also holds thin 8- or 12-ounce baby bottles. (And if booze isn’t your bag, they work for mocktail cans too!)
8. NFL Picnic Table Portable Folding With Seats & Umbrella
Card tables tend to collapse once the fun picks up, and the dinner table just won’t fit out the door. Grant your drinks and hors d’oeuvres the respect they deserve with this sturdy, highly portable folding table. It comes complete with built-in bench seating, a tabletop branded with your choice of NFL home field, and a removable, logoed umbrella. At the final whistle, it all folds inward and clips with a molded plastic handle. A model minus the umbrella, and logo, is also available.
9. Fusion Backpack Chair with Cooler
A robust aluminum throne with plush ribbed padding, we have located the tailgater’s luxe-deluxe easy chair. Leagues sturdier than any lawn chair, it’s an all-in-one ticket: Beside the right armrest sits a hard table surface and can holder, below which hangs two-tiered, accordion-style soft shelving. Beneath the left armrest is a removable 25-can soft cooler with backpack straps, pockets for small personal items, and fabric loops for an umbrella.
Grub
10. Ultimate Meat & Cheese Gift Box
Snacking is what we do the entire tailgate, and weak eats put a serious blemish on your record. This season, you can go JV with grocery cheddar and bologna or all-pro with Harry & David’s ultimate collection of meats, cheeses, sauces, and more. Entirely too much amazing food to list here, highlights include four unique Jack cheeses, premium Milano Italia Salami, Thuringer and hickory-smoked sausages, honey dill mustard, sweet and spicy snack mix, cashews, walnuts, pecans, and a bamboo cutting board for presentation.
11. Premium Meat Collection
These gorgeous fall weekends we wait all year for are no time to be serving cheap meat to friends and family. So, here’s the play: four filets of top sirloin steaks, four premium pork ribeyes, and four boneless, skinless chicken breasts, each cut weighing in at a six hearty ounces. It’s a collection that fills every tier of the grill. And for sausage fans, this four-variety sampler does the job and then some.
12. Beer Making Kit
Unveiling self-brewed beer is a tailgating flex like no other, and this kit provides every necessity for one gallon’s worth of your own mildly hopped American pale ale. The brewing process itself is a surprisingly simple one, and a great experience to undertake during a day spent at home watching games. Kits for oatmeal stout, wheat, and IPA are also available, as is a hard cider kit, perfect for fall. Best of all, every kit is reusable and can be used to brew other styles in the future.
13. Bison Burgers and Franks
While beef burgers are an easy win, throwing some bison patties and dogs on the grill will nab you the extra points. Carrying a slightly sweeter, richer taste than beef, bison is also a notably healthier red meat, with less calories and saturated fat, and more protein. Most important, the animals from which Vital Choice sources its bison meat are family raised in Nebraska on a farm with 100% naturally occurring grasses, and are free of hormone, antibiotic, and stimulant additives.
14. Wild Salmon with Grilling Planks
Go game day gourmet with half-pound cuts of the world’s most desired wild salmon: Pacific king, Alaskan sockeye, and Alaskan silver (coho). Two servings of each arrive flash frozen and vacuum sealed, along with red cedar planks, used to keep the fish free of direct flames while infusing a smokey, woodsy taste. The included organic salmon seasoning ensures perfect flavor. Alert your defense: The aromas may lure free agents from neighboring tailgates.
15. Tailgate Goodie Box
Taking a tailgate across the goal line requires some real-deal desserts. Yes, your homemade cookies and brownies are everyday standbys, but let’s face it, game day is not every day. Enter the perennial all-pro Tailgate Goodie Box. The 28 premium treats contained in this assortment — cookies, brownies, clusters…even a chocolate-covered pretzel! — come in such an embarrassment of styles, textures, and flavors (Devil’s Food, Salty Caramel, and Butter Pecan, to name a few) that it’ll look like you’re running up the score.
