Whether you call it decompressing or depressing, Dolphins fans can now only look back upon the team's 2023-24 campaign and see it as a year filled with missed opportunities and failed challenges. Just the thought of another late-season collapse is enough to make you want to pull up a barstool and tell the bartender to leave the bottle.
It's officially drown-your-sorrows season until April's NFL Draft.
But take our word for it — Dolphins fans are in good company.
Tailgaters congregate around a beer-guzzling contraption before a Miami Dolphins home game against the Buffalo Bills.
Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images
Just Drunk Enough
In a recent study conducted by BACtrack, a company that makes a smartphone-compatible breathalyzer, the Miami Dolphins fanbase has been labeled as one of the NFL's most alcohol-indulgent during the 2023-24 season.But after this season's monumental collapse from the best in the NFL to bouncing out of the playoffs in the first round, can you blame the team's followers for getting sloshed?
With an average blood alcohol content (BAC) of .079 percent, the study ranked ostensible Miami Dolphins fans as the sixth-most inebriated in the NFL, trailing behind only Tennessee (.093 percent), Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Atlanta, and New Orleans. Users tagged under the fanbase of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs had the lowest blood alcohol level, for what it's worth.
On the flip side, a .080 BAC is the legal threshold for driving under the influence. Thus, it can be argued Miami is the first winner on the list.
Miami Dolphins fans — partying like it's .079!
A somber man is drenched in cheap booze at a Cleveland Browns home game at First Energy Stadium in October 2022.
Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images
Methodology
How did the study get BAC levels from all these folks?The study's methodology involved collecting data from users of the BACtrack app. According to BACtrack, participants consented to share their data, including location services, Bluetooth access, and BAC levels. (So, while Congress is pulling in TikTok to yell at them about stealing your data, people are out here volunteering their BAC info to big breathalyzer — USA! USA!)
In addition to BAC levels, the company says it correlated users' location with a "map of NFL fan allegiance" based on social media following. That's not exactly a one-on-one interview to verify each user's fandom, but the method served as an approximation of the fanbase and regional booze-guzzling habits. In any event, the data is pretty consistent with a recent Alcohol.org survey that ranked Dolphins fans as the ninth-heaviest gameday drinkers.
Next season, we're inviting BACtrack to make an in-person visit to the Hard Rock Stadium tailgating scene for a more pointed, in-the-trenches review of Dolphins fans' alcohol-fueled behavior. The results might be more shocking than the numbers show.
Drink up, Dolphins fans. You've earned as much. Just stay below the legal limit, and never drink and drive.
