Mark Gallagher’s Sport on TV: Exciting times as NFL eyes up Dublin

Pat McAfee was largely introduced to people over here, downing pints with Shéamus of WWE fame in a city-centre pub, where he ended up being a shirtless barman. It was the night before Georgia Tech and Florida State played out a thriller at Aviva Stadium and McAfee, a former Indianapolis Colts punter turned sporting shock jock for ESPN, was at his most shouty while on duty for College GameDay. He brought up his short trip to Dublin on his show last week when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appeared for an interview.

That’s the thing about McAfee. He might come across as the Howard Stern of sport, but he does get good interviews and can affect the NFL news cycle. It was on McAfee’s show that we discovered legendary quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ weird beliefs about vaccines when he suggested that he was ‘immunised’ to Covid-19, something that opened a whole can of worms.



And after McAfee fed into the sort of Irish stereotype that suggested he could write the next SPHE textbook for secondary school students – he reckoned he drank 30 pints of Guinness on that Friday night – he got the biggest journalistic scoop for NFL fans in this country. Goodell confirmed that the league are looking at Ireland – his actual remark, in corporate speak, was that ‘Ireland was on our watch list.’ But he also pointed out that the Rooneys, who own the Pittsburgh Steelers, are on the phone to him every other day about coming to Dublin.

And that was the exciting part. The Steelers have worked hard to build up links in Ireland, especially Croke Park. It is on Jones Road where they are hosting their second watch party later this month when they play Indianapolis Colts.

Don’t bother looking for tickets, it sold out within hours. But it was another illustration of the popularity of American football in these parts. It might not be quite Stateside levels yet – 19 of the 20 most-watched programmes on American TVs last year were NFL games – but there will be hundreds of fans travelling across to London for the games next month at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium or heading to Munich in November.

The NFL in Dublin makes sense on so many levels, especially if the Steelers are pushing it. One issue, more over-arching than hotel prices in the city, is the size of the pitch at Croke Park. When you go to an American football game, it is striking how small the playing field is.

The dimensions are 110m long and 49m wide. Compare that to a GAA field, which can be 140m long and 90m wide. If the Steelers do come to play at Croker, there will be a lot of space.

But the NFL is nothing if not resourceful in its quest for world domination, which continued in Brazil last Friday as the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles met at the home of Corinthians in Sao Paulo. Next season, the NFL is going to the Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid. Croke Park feels like a natural home, too, for a game.

Iconic stadiums matter to the NFL. The staggering popularity of the game in America – where it is the only unifying cultural pursuit in an increasingly divided country – will be difficult to replicate worldwide, because nobody else plays the game at a junior level. But they are trying.

And it’s fair to say that this season began with a bang over the weekend. Twenty-four hours before the Packers and Eagles made history in South America, the Kansas City Chiefs started on a road that they hope will end with a third straight Super Bowl title – something that has never been done – with a dramatic 27-20 victory over the Baltimore Ravens, whose attempt at a last-second touchdown to tie the game was denied when Isaiah Likely’s toe happened to be over the touchline. Just a toe.

And for all the reasons not to like the sport – from the violent hits and concussion crisis to the length of time it sometimes takes to complete – this is what American football can give us. Pure, unadulterated drama right at the end. As it did in Kansas City.

Patrick Mahomes’ quest for immortality is one reason to keep watching and the quarterback was being compared to Michael Jordan on the coverage. But there are many others. Tom Brady, for so long the defining presence on the field, is climbing into the commentary booth – and this matters in America where talking about the sport is often as important as the game itself.

Hence the status of people like McAfee. And there is one more reason for those of us in Ireland to watch this season. When Daniel Whelan became the starting punter for the Green Bay Packers last season, he became the first Irish-born player since Neil O’Donoghue in the 1980s.

But the Enniskerry native may have started a trend. Charlie Smyth’s remarkable journey from a Gaelic football goalkeeper in Down to being a kicker with New Orleans Saints has captured the imagination Stateside – McAfee even had the Mayobridge man on his show after he scored a last-minute field goal in his first pre-season game. Smyth didn’t make the Saints roster of 53 for the start of the season, but as part of the International Player Programme – another angle to the NFL’s plan to take on the world – he can be part of their practice squad for the year.

Meaning he will spend more time honing his craft. Kicker is often considered the most pressurised job in the game, even more so than quarterback, because those last-minute misses are never forgotten, just ask Buffalo Bills fans about Scott Norwood and wide right. But Smyth appears to be revelling in it and, by all accounts, he could find a way onto the Saints roster in time.

Just one more reason why Ireland has been firmly placed on the NFL’s watch list. Roger Goodell all but confirmed that they will be coming here. We better be ready.

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