Fabulous Football Party + Tailgating Ideas

Thank you Coca-Cola and Sam’s Club for sponsoring our fun football party. All ideas and opinions are always 100% my own. #ShareYourSpirit #CollectiveBias

For my family, fall is all about crisp colorful leaves, trips to the pumpkin patch, sweater weather, and college football! My husband and I are pretty passionate about watching each and every one of my alma mater’s football games, and I just put together a really fun football party for the first game of the season this past weekend that I’m so excited to share with you!

I went all out for this party with lots of delicious food, ice cold Cokes, and football-themed decorations that added to the whole feel of the party food table. Today I’m going to share with you a barbecue beef sandwich recipe that was a hit at the party, an easy tutorial for creating your own serving platters, and some great resources with you for some awesome football party printables. Let’s get started!

I covered up the table with some artificial turf that I already had to mimic the look of a football field.

One the center of the table I placed a wood shelving cubby that I found and fell in love with. It was the perfect way to add height and variety to the table, and all the little nooks were perfect for adding treats inside!

Two football player statues went up at the very top, along with a football and a cute printable football garland (all links to printables are at the bottom of the post). I also added a small football pennant banner to parts of my wood cubbies to add more color and tie it into the football theme.

My black chalkboard came in handy as a backdrop to go behind the wood shelf. My husband had fun drawing up a football play with chalk on the board.

I shopped at Sam’s Club to spoil my guests with all kinds of yummy football food. Sam’s Club also has an easy Order Online and Pick Up in store feature where you can go to Sam’s Club online and order anything you need for your football or tailgating party, and then go pick it all up instantly in the store. So cool, and a total timesaver!

My football party food consisted of Coke marinated barbecue beef sandwiches (recipe further in the post), boneless buffalo chicken pieces, chicken and cheese taquitos, mozzarella sticks, nachos, football brownie bites, Cherry Coke cupcakes, popcorn, and soft pretzels.

I served the food at different heights on the table, on cake stands, on a red picnic basket, and on the wood shelves. I printed some cute free football printables that I found online (sources at end of post), and made them into adorable food flags.

The nachos were served in cute printable snack baskets that were easy to put together. Each basket was filled with chips and a small cup filled with nacho cheese.

Striped black and white Halloween buckets were turned into referee buckets that fit the football theme perfectly!

To make the football brownie bites, I bought some some pre-made brownie bites from Sam’s Club, and then used white frosting to create the stitches to look like footballs. So easy!

I bought a 28 pack of Coca-Cola to quench everyone’s thirst, and placed the cans in a large galvanized party bucket filled with ice. I wanted to make sure that no one would go thirsty, and with the 28 pack I knew that I would have more than enough soda for everyone!

I found the 28 pack at Sam’s Club on a special football display at the front of the store.

I used a can of Coke to make the awesome barbecue beef sandwiches that I served. They were really delicious, and the recipe made a lot so, too! The best part, besides that taste, is that the meat was made in the slow cooker, so it took very little hands-on time. Here’s the easy recipe…

Slow Cooker Coke-Marinated Barbecue Beef Sandwiches

3-6 lbs. beef roast
1 12-oz can Coca-Cola
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
salt and pepper
2 bottles barbecue sauce

Place the roast in the slow cooker. Pour the Coke and Worcestershire Sauce over the roast, then season with salt and pepper.

Depending on the size of your roast, you can cook your roast on low in the slow cooker for anywhere between 7-10 hours. When the meat is done, carefully remove it from the slow cooker.

Use a fork and knife to shred the beef, then add some barbecue sauce to the beef and stir completely. (I used two full bottles of barbecue sauce and mixed it in with the beef.)

You could serve immediately, or let the flavors become stronger in the fridge like I did. They were definitely worth the wait!

I also made Cherry Coke cupcakes using the Coke too. I came up with a unique and creative way of displaying the cherry coke cupcakes that was really easy to pull together and that I’ve never seen done before- I turned a Coke bottle and a Coke can into cupcake stands!

DIY Coke Cupcake Stand

White salad plate
Coke bottle or can (either one will work)
e6000 adhesive (a very strong glue)
Q-tip

* e6000 is a very strong glue with a strong odor, so be sure to use this glue either outside or in a well-ventilated area.

If using a Coke bottle, squeeze a medium-sized amount of the adhesive onto the bottle lid. Place the white plate upside down, and press down the bottle lid to the center of the upside down plate.

Press down firmly for about a minute, then place in a safe place upside down while the adhesive dries. I waited about 24 hours to touch mine again, and it was perfect then!

If using a Coke can, squeeze some e6000 onto the entire rim of the can.

Press the can top upside down onto the center of a white salad plate, press down for about a minute, and then move to a safe place where it won’t be touched until completely dry the next day.

Later the next day your cupcake stand should be dry, so you can place on it cookies, cupcakes, etc. That Coke base is stuck on there really well and isn’t going anywhere!

I hope you enjoyed all these football party and tailgating ideas, and that it inspires you to put together a fun food table for your next big football game!

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What’s your favorite food to eat while watching football?