Take it from Tua Tagovailoa: football fans matter. “The fans have gotten louder and louder over the years since I’ve been here,” the Miami Dolpins fifth-season quarterback says. “None of the support from our fans goes unnoticed, and we really appreciate that as players.”
But long before Tagovailoa arrived in Miami in 2020, season ticket–holder Jeff Rudman was working behind the scenes to make the fan base “feel like family with a ‘ph,’” he says. When the team turned in a season of one win and 15 losses in 2007, Rudman hated what he saw on the field. But what he saw from fans—many of whom wore brown bags over their heads in protest—stung even deeper. Someone needed to change things, and he decided that someone would be him.
Instead of a brown bag, Rudman donned a bright orange wig and vest at home games, and his get-up got noticed. He launched a Facebook page called @Phin Addicts and was invited to a meeting with the Dolphins front office. There, a new idea (and a whole new fan section) was born: The Deep End, where die-hard fans cheer on their team. But for Rudman, the real success will be the day when every section of Hard Rock Stadium looks and feels like The Deep End. “I want everyone to release their inner Finatic,” he says.
Here, we meet three superfans who embody that Deep End spirit: where anything goes and no lifeguard is on duty.
Fins Rider aka Corey Sturgis
Corey Sturgis can’t recall a time when he wasn’t a Miami Dolphins fan. But he does remember when his true passion for the team took hold in his heart.
It’s the old tale of “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone”: when Sturgis was 13, his father’s battle with alcoholism caused him to relocate to Connecticut. “That’s when I really realized how much I missed Florida and my team,” he recalls. “Connecticut was not a fun place at all. Plus,” he adds, laughing, “I was suddenly in Patriots territory.”
At first, arguing about football with his new classmates gave Sturgis a way to connect to them. Eventually he realized it was also a way to connect to the home he missed so much. “It wasn’t just about the team, it was about the area,” he recalls. “I knew right then that I’d figure out a way to get back home.” Sturgis did just that, returning to South Florida in 2018 to attend the Florida Atlantic University Wilkes Honors College in Jupiter.
He’d been to a Dolphins versus Jets game at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey as a kid, but after returning to Florida, he experienced his first game at Hard Rock Stadium. “It was even better than an away game,” Sturgis says. He was hooked: he attended every home game of the 2018 season and took a part-time job to be able to upgrade to a major bucket-list item: Miami Dolphins season tickets.
That first season saw Sturgis wearing your typical fan gear of Dolphins jerseys, T-shirts, and shorts. But the following year, he got the bug to take things up a notch. Inspired by costumed fans he spotted throughout the stadium, Sturgis added a fabric skeleton gaiter mask to his get-up, began attending training camp daily, and launched an Instagram account under the handle @finsrider. The name and look were inspired by Ghost Rider, a skull-headed comic book anti-hero that Sturgis liked as a kid. Soon, he graduated from the fabric mask to a molded plastic mask that he painted himself using craft supplies purchased at Michael’s.
Another key element of Sturgis’ outfit? The Xs on his skeleton-fingered gloves represent an alcohol-free life. Inspired by WWE wrestler CM Punk and the Xs that bartenders often draw on the hands of underage patrons, Sturgis wears his Xs proudly to show his alcohol-free status. “Because of my experience with my father’s alcoholism, it’s something that’s important to me,” he says. “I get offered a lot of drinks at tailgates because that’s just the culture. But you’ve got to stay true to yourself and your beliefs. And that’s something that is really a big part of the Fins Rider character. I want to show people that you can have the best time of your life experiencing a football game without alcohol.”
The Fins Rider look and its underlying message got Sturgis noticed—on Instagram (with nearly 11,000 followers), at tailgates, on the jumbotron at home games, and even on local TV coverage. Sturgis soon became a standout fan that other fans looked to follow or meet. By the start of the 2023 season, Jeff Rudman came calling with an offer to sit in The Deep End with other Dolphins superfans. Sturgis accepted immediately, though he says that not everyone in The Deep End has a costume as elaborate as his.
“The Deep End isn’t just about who dresses up the most,” he says. “It’s about expressing love for the fandom. We’re on our feet the whole game, and we want to be loud. We want to be those crazy fans who inspire the crowd and the team. We want to bring smiles to people’s faces, but we also want to encourage each other and support each other when we go through losses. Sometimes we lose, but we’re there—for each other and for the team. It’s almost like a team itself. And there’s no place I’d rather be.”
Favorite all-time Dolphins player: wide receiver Danny Amendola Favorite current Dolphins player: cornerback Jalen Ramsey Favorite opponent to defeat: the New York Jets Favorite fan memory: Danny Amendola tossing his gloves to me. I had met him during training camp, and he was such a nice guy. Then, after one of the first games I attended, he recognized me in the stands and tossed me his gloves. I was even able to get them signed later. Best seats in Hard Rock Stadium: The Deep End Best tailgate spot: the east orange 12 lot Favorite tailgate food: chicken wings Number of Dolphins games I’ve attended: more than 50 When I’m not at the game, you can find me cheering on the Dolphins at: Hooters or Buffalo Wild Wings Number of jerseys I own: 1o Number of autographs I’ve collected: 30 Most prized piece of Dolphins fan gear: a pair of gloves and a jersey signed by Danny Amendola I own way too many: Dolphins hats This season I’m looking forward to: the Dolphins winning a Super Bowl
Dolphreaky aka Allison Goodman
Allison Goodman’s ‘Fins fandom can be traced directly to her father. Growing up in Pennsylvania, Goodman recalls how her dad’s Miami roots meant he bled orange and aqua. “On Sundays in my house, it was all about football,” Goodman says. “If I wanted to have a connection with my father during football season, I needed to be on that couch with him.”
Though Goodman describes her dad as a “reserved fan,” she turned out to be anything but. She points to her first visit to Hard Rock Stadium in 2008 as the genesis of her superfan backstory.
“I saw superfans like Gorilla Luke and Jeff Rudman, and I knew it was about more than just the game,” she says. “It was [about] hosting tailgates and hugging children and supporting the team on a whole different level. I got sucked in after that and vowed to move down to Florida.”
In 2009, DirecTV launched a competition for the NFL’s most displaced fan, and Goodman decided to apply. “You had to make a video, and I chose to do a rap song where I changed the words to Will Smith’s ‘Miami.’ I wore a crazy wig and a Dolphins jersey. I felt like I needed to have a rap name to go along with it, so I came up with Dolphreaky Fizzle,” she says, laughing. The video went viral, and Goodman won the contest. The name stuck, but in a compacted form: Dolphreaky.
By 2014, Goodman had moved to Florida, and her Dolphreaky outfits evolved over time: from half-orange, half-aqua spiky wigs, to team-tinged butterfly wings, and beyond. But in 2019, everything changed for Goodman. Often nicknamed the “Tank for Tua” season, many fans felt the 2019 Dolphins were purposely losing games to snag quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in the 2020 NFL draft.
“I felt for the fans who were going to the games and still having to pay knowing that we were going to lose,” she says. “I created a hard hat and a stop-sign-shaped sign that read, ‘Stop Tanking.’ The pictures of me holding that sign up went viral in newspapers and TV coverage and social media. That’s when the hard hat became my signature accessory.”
Fast-forward a few years, and Goodman now counts more than 15,000 followers of her @dolphreaky Instagram account. Though she lives in Naples and is a mother to two kids, she attends every home game, plus three to four away games, and the NFL draft. In 2022, she was even named the Dolphins’ Fan of the Year (the first woman to receive the honor).
But it was meeting a fan with special needs that made Goodman realize she can use her followers and fandom to do good even when it’s not game day. “I started a nonprofit, Dolphreaky Friends, to raise and funnel money to families in the Dolphins community that need it—anything from house fires, to health care, to hurricanes, we’re there to help.”
Since Goodman works as a pharmacist, a new focus of her charitable outreach is a Narcan distribution program that reduces the stigma of narcotics overdose. “I’m working to get Narcan nasal spray in every household in Florida, every workplace, everyone’s car,” she says, pointing out that having the life-saving spray at tailgates—where drug use is not unheard of—is a smart precaution.
And what does Goodman’s dad think of his daughter’s Dolphinmania? “When he comes with me to games, a line will form to talk to me, and my dad’s just like, ‘It’s too much just being with you! You’re too crazy and outlandish.’ But I’m like, ‘Dude you made me this way,’” she says. “I know he is really proud. I brought him to the Super Bowl when I won Fan of the Year. It was the best way that I could repay him for everything that he’s given me. I wouldn’t be doing any of this if not for him.”
Favorite all-time Dolphins player: Hall-of-Famer defensive end Jason Taylor Favorite current Dolphins player: wide receiver Tyreek Hill Favorite opponent to defeat: the New York Jets Favorite fan memory: being named the 2022 Dolphins Fan of the Year Best seats in Hard Rock Stadium: The Deep End Best Tailgate spot: the east orange 12 lot Favorite tailgate food: cupcakes from chef Julian Wilson (with orange and aqua frosting, of course) Number of Dolphins games I’ve attended: 50 or 60 When I’m not at the game, you can find me cheering on the Dolphins at: the Southwest Florida Dolphin Club watch parties at the Keys Bar and Grill in Fort Myers Number of jerseys I own: 79. I’m trying to collect one in every number from zero to 99. Number of autographs I’ve collected: too many to count Most prized piece of Dolphins fan gear: My “Stop Tanking” sign. It was such a defining moment for me in my fandom. I own way too many: patches and stickers from super fans all over the NFL This season I’m looking forward to: a Dolphins Super Bowl win
FinSassin aka Bob Sampson
The neighborhood celebrations that rang out across the Magic City in January 1973 after the Miami Dolphins defeated the then–Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII—capping off the team’s 14-win “perfect season”—are Bob Sampson’s most cherished childhood memory.
“I was 9 years old,” he says. “After we won the Super Bowl, my next-door neighbor played the fight song over and over out his window. I can remember running up and down in the streets and just yelling like crazy. It was the best day.”
Sampson grew up in a family of ‘Fins fans, noting that his father took him to as many games as he could. “We didn’t have a lot of money and we had a big family, but my dad took me when he could afford [it],” he says.
By the late ’80s, Sampson had found success working in the trucking industry and had made enough bank to buy Dolphins season tickets. He says he didn’t dress up beyond the usual fan garb, but considered himself a “hard-core, dedicated fan.”
In 2008, however, Sampson’s life took a turn. After he was severely injured in an accident and underwent subsequent surgeries, doctors prescribed him opioids to deal with his unbearable pain.
“That put me on a yearslong odyssey with addiction,” he recalls. “I nearly overdosed several times. I had car wrecks that resulted in serious spine damage. I became homeless for a period of time. I basically lost everything. I was at the lowest point in my life. And it almost wound up killing me.”
Sampson entered rehab after rehab as he tried to shake his opioid addiction and get his life back on track. For a time, he made no progress. Then, he says, inspiration came from an unexpected place.
“One of the counselors said I had to start thinking about something consistent in my life that had given me happiness and joy and fun,” he says, “because those are the things you need to find hope. I did some thinking on that. And believe it or not, the thing that kept coming to mind that always gave me that spark was being a Miami Dolphins fan.”
Sampson knows that sounds like something out of an overly saccharine sports-themed movie. But sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. “I latched back onto my fandom in that moment,” he says. “I can’t explain why or how that helped me fix things, but it did. January 3, 2019, was the start of a new year and my new life.”
Sampson’s first move after getting clean and securing housing and employment? Buying back his Miami Dolphins season tickets. But he decided to do things a little differently this time around. “I wanted to create a platform where I could express my fandom, but also raise awareness about recovery and helping others save and change their lives. So I created the FinSassin.”
Beyond the Dolphins, another early obsession of Sampson’s was professional wrestling. It only made sense then that his superfan character would be inspired by that world of Lucho Libre and wrestling culture.
Now decked out as FinSassin (@bobf1nnz on Instagram), Sampson never misses a game, whether it’s being played at home, away, or abroad. His likeness—and his message—are making an impact. “I had a guy walk up to me at MetLife Stadium when we were playing the Jets and say, ‘I know you don’t know me, but I follow you on Twitter. I just want you to know that you sharing your story helped me find a desire to change. And now I’m seven months sober.’
“Now I get to help people like that by dressing up and supporting the team that helped bring me back to life? I think that’s a win in any book.”
Favorite all-time Dolphins player: Hall-of-Famer quarterback Dan Marino Favorite current Dolphins player: running back Raheem Mostert Favorite opponent to defeat: the Buffalo Bills Favorite fan memory: The game against the New England Patriots in 1994 when Dan Marino came back after tearing his Achilles tendon. It was a hell of a game and we won in the end. Best seats in Hard Rock Stadium: My Club-level seats in Section 238. I can sit in comfort and I’m surrounded by great people. Best Tailgate spot: the east orange 12 lot Favorite tailgate food: arepas Number of Dolphins games I’ve attended: more than 300 When I’m not at the game, you can find me cheering on the Dolphins at: I’m always at the games, both home and away. But if I had to miss one, I’d watch from the comfort of my own recliner in my own home. Number of jerseys I own: 10 Number of autographs I’ve collected: I’m not a big autograph guy. I get pictures with the players instead. Pictures mean more to me than autographs. I probably have at least 50 of them. Most prized piece of Dolphins fan gear: When the Dolphins invited me to the NFL draft in 2024, they gave me a jersey with the number 24 and the word “draft” across the back. I own way too many: Dolphins T-shirts This season I’m looking forward to: Having a successful season and beating Buffalo. I want to say “a Super Bowl victory.” But I’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. I want playoff wins first!
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