The National Football League is coming to Croke Park and, in a novel departure for this island, the NFL we’re talking about this time is a tournament in which the competing teams actually want to reach the final.
The Irish Examiner reported last week that all that remains for the game to be officially announced is the formation of a new government in the 34th Dáil.
So even though the number of minutes it takes to actually play an NFL game would be more than enough time for the parties involved to agree on all the things they currently know they’re going to agree on eventually, we might still be waiting until mid-January for the final declaration. But it looks certain now that this is going to happen in 2025.
I should declare early here that I’m a fan of the NFL, in the way that increasing numbers of Irish sports fans are a fan of the NFL. Sunday afternoon is for TG4 or Sky Sports – it’s a fairly well-established duopoly. But Sunday evening, say after dinner, or maybe after children have been shipped off to bed, is a relatively quiet time in many households.
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There isn’t any other sport on at that time, particularly not in winter, when the PGA Tour is winding down. The nights are long, the pub feels like a bit of a stretch . . . why not watch an hour or two of American football?
The Sky Sports coverage is pleasingly relaxed, everyone seems to be having a wonderful time, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone whose evening is going to be ruined by anything that happens on the field.
I look out for the San Francisco 49ers because my great friend in broadcasting, Brian Murphy of KNBR radio in the Bay Area, still tears up at the mention of Joe Montana. But I’m not fussy at the NFL buffet, I’ll pile up whatever’s on the menu and stay for as long as the evening allows, or maybe until Match of the Day 2 starts.
I’d love to go to an NFL game, but by the same token any of the cities I’d like to go to in America would probably have more interesting things to offer me than spending eight hours getting out and back from MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, or Levi Stadium in Santa Clara. I like the idea, but do I love it enough to take a day out of my holidays for it? That’s the question. The NFL in Croker on the other hand, a few stops across town on the 123 bus? Sign me up.
The Pittsburgh Steelers will be the main draw at Croker. That’s the team owned by the Rooney family who emigrated from Ireland in the 1840s, bought the team in the 1930s, and set up the Ireland Funds in the 1970s. . It’s been a move that’s been in the offing for a very long time, but this is an interesting moment.
Revenue’s increased focus on the affairs of various county boards has meant money has been on people’s minds over the last few days. And the idea that the biggest show in world sport, the most rampantly capitalist league on the planet, is coming to Croke Park, while referees are being asked to file a tax return for the 40 quid they might get on a Sunday morning reffing a Junior B game might seem a little too on the nose.
Of course, the NFL is capitalist on the streets, and socialist in the sheets – what they do better than any league is protect the league from outside forces. If you’ve had a terrible season, we will provide you with the best young players entering the league (via the draft system).
If the city you’ve been based in for your entire history doesn’t want to build you a brand new stadium because the free stadium they built for you 30 years ago has started to look a little tatty – don’t worry, you can move to a different city who will find the cash from somewhere to build you that new stadium. As owner, you can just change the name and continue making profits.
The NFL are big enough to hold a gun to cities’ heads, and get them to do whatever they want. The GAA aren’t in that league, but there are levers they can pull.
Putting the GAA on a sound footing with Revenue is a good idea, and might even lead to the Association finally grasping the nettle in relation to illicit payments to club and county managers. But death and taxes are no longer the only two certainties in life.
Paying the full amount of your taxes if you’re a greyhound owner or a horse trainer is a little like being an American multinational – something the Government appear eager to try to stop you doing at all costs. Croke Park might feel like they’re on the defensive right now, and the release a couple of weeks ago of an economic report that estimated the total worth of the GAA to the country as being in the region of €3 billion was possibly a case of getting your retaliation in first.
We will be greeted with similarly outlandish claims as to just what dollar value an NFL game in Dublin will mean to the Irish economy. But the GAA don’t need to ask government to pander to billionaire owners of their games, they just need to ask for their existing contribution to the nation’s wellbeing to be recognised. Because that is quite simply priceless.
