How I Watch With TikTok’s Paola Argueta, Whose Game Day Looks Different Than Most Dolphins Fans
How do you watch your favorite team each week? Sports Illustrated is highlighting passionate sports fans all season long with its How I Watch series, where you’ll hear from athletes, celebrities and other superfans from across the country about their game-day traditions. routines and setup for the perfect day of watching sports.
Paola Argueta’s official title is corporate communications manager for the Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium, but she could be given a host of other job titles: on-air commentator, TikTok influencer, role model—even track star, considering how much she is running around each time she is at Hard Rock for a Dolphins home game.
With more than 80,000 followers on TikTok, Argueta is known for sharing advice about how to enter the sports world, plus serving as an advocate for Latinas like herself. And on most game days—whether she’s at Hard Rock Stadium in person or watching at home on her couch—she embodies that same connection with her community: One of her main roles is to translate, amplify and rework the Dolphins’ social messaging for the Latinx audience in Miami. Below, she discusses her role, game-day rituals and more.
This is Argueta’s fifth season working with the Dolphins.
Courtesy of Paola Argueta
Sports Illustrated: Walk me through how you got to the Dolphins—were you a fan before you started working for the league?
Paola Argueta: I wanted to get into the NFL or into the NBA; I really wanted to do sports. Miami was always like, a beacon. It was just like, Wow, that’d be so cool to work for Miami. But just being a newcomer in the sports field, I thought that I might have to start small, and it just so happened that I ended up being in Miami. So I’m not gonna say that I watched the team in the 1990s, and I grew up watching the team. … My first NFL game was probably when I was in my early 20s. I’m a Dolphins fan at this time, but it’s mainly because of the organization.
SI: What do you do to get yourself pumped up to go to the game or to watch a game?
PA: It depends. If I am going to the stadium, I typically arrive about four hours before kickoff. And so for me, I’m a very slow person in the morning. So I will typically wake up about an hour, two hours before so I can like just get ready, and then I can try to film some content if I’m doing like “a day in the life,” or if I’m doing some sort of stuff showcasing my day. My morning routine is always just rushed. It’s like frantically trying to get everything done so I can be out of the door in time to get to the venue. If I’m not physically at the game, it’s a lot more relaxed. I wake up in the morning, I go to church and then I’ll go find a coffee somewhere.
SI: Do you have any interesting rituals or superstitions that you follow on game day?
PA: I have a need to have an iced coffee at some point before kickoff. It’s not like a ritual, but I just feel like I just need to [have one]. I don’t know why. … That, and I eat a key lime pie every single game day that I’m at the stadium for. They serve them to the media, but for some reason I just feel like I need one.
SI: What do you usually like to wear when you’re at games? And when watching from home?
PA: If I’m not home, I’m in whatever I feel comfortable in. Usually just like shorts and a Miami T-shirt. All my all my big T-shirts are all Miami, you would think that I’m a football player. … When I’m in-game, usually, I like to wear things that are comfortable that I can run around in. I get a lot of steps in, because our stadium is just built like a circle, so I’ll do laps all day, from kick-off all the way to the end of the game. That and then also something that I can sweat in, where you can’t tell that I’m profusely sweating because it’s just so hot and so humid. I also like to be in colors that are kind of loud, or not Miami Dolphins colors, because it’s easier to tell people that I’m the person wearing purple, instead of the person wearing aqua and orange. So that’s just kind of how I think about things.
SI: Do you have a favorite piece of Dolphins merch?
PA: I have a couple of favorite pieces. We’ve had some really fun collaborations in the past: We did one with Unknown, which is like a local Miami streetwear brand, and they did this fun tracksuit. I also got this like, shirt and bowling shirt combo. … So those, I think they’re just unique, and it just kind fits more of my style.
SI: Are you ever watching with friends or out somewhere, or is it always at home?
PA: I don’t really go watch the game anymore necessarily, because I kind of have to focus on what’s going on if I’m running the Twitter. It’s not like a structure that I follow; it’s just kind of commentary or a sort of amplification that I provide in supplementary to the Miami Dolphins’ actual Twitter account, just to connect more with our Hispanic audience.
SI: Besides the key lime pie, are there any other snacks or drinks that you’re bringing to watch every game?
PA: I always have a 32-ounce emotional-support security water bottle. And I’ll try to drink about two or three of those a day because I’m moving around so much. If I’m in stadium, they’ll usually serve as lunch or some type of like to-go food, and it’s usually a Pub Sub. If you’re familiar with Florida, we eat a lot of Publix here.
SI: Do you have a favorite memory of watching the Dolphins play?
PA: This season has been the most incredible I’ve experienced on-field. Collectively the energy and camaraderie between the team, organization and fans is at an all-time high. Hearing fans echo through the stadium as they chant after going 3-0, the positive responses on social and seeing people on the street wearing their jerseys, it truly feels like all of South Florida is behind the Dolphins. Watching the Dolphins play this season—whether at home or on the field—is among the most memorable for me.
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