Tailgating Game

"Dude! Why didn't I think of that?" If only Steve Troutman and his buddies had a dime for every time they've heard a drunken football fan say that. Troutman and other Baltimore natives—brothers Brett, Brooks, and Todd Bennett, with Scott Krivosh, Kevin Manner, Stephan Quigley, and Dean Tsimon—first got the idea for Cool Toss on an annual trip to watch their beloved Ravens in 2006. They bought a pair of buckets from a bait shop to use as coolers and the guys passed the time by tossing toy footballs into them. "We nicknamed it 'bucket ball,'" says Troutman. "On the flight home, we thought it would be fun to come up with our own tailgating game." So they developed Cool Toss, a cooler with three holes in the lid for beanbag tossing, which officially launched at Orioles' opening day in April. The all-in-one coolers are available at cooltoss.com and they project $500,000 in first-year sales. The guys are even meeting with ESPN, Miller Lite, Budweiser, Bass Pro Shops, and Coleman coolers. Suffice it to say, they're livin' the dream.