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Houston Texas ABC 13 News interviews Bull's Eye Tailgaters Crew

With all the building activity revolving around the Bull's Eye Tailgaters after winning the National Tailgating Championship last year, ABC 13 news asked to interview team members and will broadcast on the first preseason Monday Night Football game this year.  One of the most exciting parts was having the interviews conducted at our newest and largest sponsor, Tewbeleaux's Sports Bar & Grill in Spring, TX.  Be sure to watch Monday Night Football August 15th @ 7PM on ESPN or come out and join the tailgate in the Yellow Lot.

Houston Texans News - Bull's Eye is the best

Bone-chilling temperatures and a totally new city did nothing to keep the Bull’s Eye Tailgaters from capturing the BING National Championship of Tailgating last Thursday in Fort Worth. The Houston-based crew, which parties before every Texans home game in the Yellow lot, took home a golden grill and $15,000 as the grand prize.

“We’re just simple guys on the team,” member Jason Saldivar said. “We’re overwhelmed to win and represent the Texans. We tell everybody the Texans are a first-class organization, and we’re a first-class tailgate. I think we’re proving that through all these events we’re winning.”

Saldivar and company traveled to Fort Worth last Wednesday, prepped the night before, and arrived at Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth at 4 a.m. Thursday morning. Saldivar said the freezing temperatures were only a minor hiccup in what was a thrilling experience.

“The high (temperature) was 11, but we wanted to be first ones there. It was the coldest I’d ever been,” he said.

The Bull’s Eye Tailgaters helped keep warm with eight different types of heaters, as well as plenty of delicious food and drinks. Part of the reason they won the event was the outstanding Texas barbecue they cooked up, which included brisket, pulled pork, chicken, various sausages, bacon-wrapped jalapenos, ribs, bacon-wrapped tenderloins and much more.

New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush was a judge, and Saldivar joked that seeing the top of the former Heisman winner's head was the best compliment of all.

“He wasn’t even picking his head up,” Saldivar said. “He was just going at the plate. He said he loves barbecue, and he was glad that a team did it on the scale that we did. He ate everything on there, which was pretty impressive. Normally, the judges would just take a bite here and there, but he went to town on it.”

Saldivar and friends said they had to scale down their normal tailgate setup in comparison to what they usually do before Texans home games. Their band, train horn, flatscreen TV’s and more did make the trip north to Fort Worth. He estimated that 20 to 25 members of the tailgate made the trip, and in all, there were 40 to 50 people supporting their efforts at the Finals.

The Bull’s Eye Tailgaters plan to put some of their winnings toward buying a new trailer, and some to charity.

Houston Texans showcase BET Win on Front Page of Website

Congrats to Bull’s Eye Tailgaters
Posted by drewdougherty on February 7, 2011 – 9:21 am

In case you missed it, the Houston’s own Bull’s Eye Tailgaters won the Bing National Tailgating Championship on Thursday in Fort Worth.

The Bull's Eye Tailgaters celebrate their championship on Thursday afternoon in Fort Worth.

They won the Houston-area competition in November before the game against the Chargers.

We talked with the guys last week before they left, and the Texans gave them some goodies from a few different sponsors.

We’ll have a video up on the site about it later today, but we’re really happy for the Bull’s Eye Tailgaters, who cooked up the standard tailgate fare like brisket, ribs and chicken, but also added in specialties like jalapeño cheddar sausage, bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin, smoked Cajun sausage and Cajun pork tenderloin.


Posted in Drew Dougherty

BET Becomes Bing National Tailgating Champions Winners

Houston team wins tailgating championship
KEN HOFFMAN
Posted:  02/06/2011 12:35 AM

FORT WORTH — Hundreds of fans crowded into Sundance Square to watch America's best parking lot chefs compete in the Bing National Tailgating Championship.

Or maybe they were just trying to stay warm.

Tailgating contestants started cooking at 5 a.m. Thursday and fans began gathering around 10 a.m. The temperature was 26 degrees at eatin' time.

When the smoke cleared, the Bull's Eye Tailgaters from Houston won the top prize of $15,000 and a gold-colored, fully functional gas barbecue grill.

It's a little glitzy.

The event was hosted by New Orleans Saints star Reggie Bush and Joe Cahn, the "Commish" of the Tailgating Institute of America.

The Bull's Eye team won the Houston semifinals back in November. The judges were former Texans lineman Steve McKinney, H-E-B president Scott McClelland and me. Ah, we remember those pork ribs well.

The Houston cookers defeated tailgate teams from Denver, New York, Phoenix, New Orleans and Seattle. 

Do they even know what barbecue is in those cities? From now on, the winner of the Houston event should be given the national trophy to save everybody time and trouble.

The Bull's Eye team cooked (take a deep breath) brisket, jalapeño cheddar sausage, bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin, smoked Cajun sausage, beef ribs, pork ribs, Cajun pork tenderloin and chicken. Plus all the fixin's.

"We're a Southern state so we wanted to impress the judges with our volume of beef and other meats," said Jason Saldivar, who founded the Bull's Eye Tailgaters with his brothers Troy and Ray.

"This was definitely the coldest weather we ever cooked in. We were prepared with propane heaters, though. The biggest hurdle we had was timing everything so it would be hot off the grill when we served the judges. That's what we do: timing and execution."

ken.hoffman@chron.com