With its grinning cheerleaders, half-time shows and annoyingly optimistic fans, it can be argued that American football is the spiritual opposite of the GAA – a bone-crunching triumph of style over substance, of pizazz over purgatorial perseverance on waterlogged winter pitches. But if you make it in Gridiron, the rewards are considerable, with players’ salaries in the professional game averaging $3.2 million – even more than some top GAA managers might hope to claim back in mileage.
With such life-changing sums of money up for grabs, it is unsurprising that elite athletes in other sports should be looking across the Atlantic. That story of half a dozen Irish sportsmen trying to break into American football is told in the enjoyable, if lightweight, Punt: The Irish and the NFL (RTÉ One, Monday).
It’s a road trip as much as a sports documentary as we join Tadhg Leader, a Galway-born talent spotter for the NFL who has arranged for a number of inter-county footballers (and the occasional rugby pro) to try out for American football as place-kickers.
The hopefuls are diverse in terms of age and their relationship with the world of quarterbacks and touchdowns. They include veteran Monaghan goalkeeper Rory Beggan and Down under-age star Charlie Smyth – the latter part of a new generation of Irish sports fans raised on the NFL.
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It’s a tough grind, with the footballers having to fly to the US to participate in a sort of global training camp where they take place kicks and are assessed by NFL officials. The closest comparison is probably going on trial for a soccer team in Britain – though there are no lower league teams where you can learn your craft. It’s either the NFL or bust.
The only one to make it is Down’s Smyth, who is offered a contract by the New Orleans Saints. Or is he? Halfway through the season, another place-kicker is named as first pick, and the Irishman’s contract is up for grabs. But he then ends up back at the Saints anyway as understudy to Blake Grupe. With kickers earning an average of $300,000, he probably isn’t complaining.
Punt is an engaging insight into the challenges of coming late to American football (Beggan is in his 30s). But the documentary might have provided us with more information. Leader talks about “creating a pathway” to the US for Irish athletes – but surely this is as much a business for him as a passion.
In which case, how does he earn a living? Does he manage the players? Or receive a commission from the clubs – sorry, “franchises”? We are none the wiser.
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It would also be useful to hear more about his sporting background. A quick internet search reveals he is a former rugby pro who was briefly signed to a team in the Canadian football league – a sort of cousin-once-removed to American football. Why not put some of this into the film?
Still, it’s fascinating to see Irish athletes trying to adapt to an alien sporting culture, and it is intriguing to think that GAA stars might start to look to American football as much as Australia’s AFL as a route to professionalism.
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On the other hand, given the US’s recent enthusiasm for insulting its allies and cosying up to despots, there are surely questions as to whether the Trump effect will take the gloss off American football – which has done itself no favours with its disgraceful treatment of Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback hounded out of the sport for protesting institutionalised racism and police brutality. Ireland’s romance with the sport may just be starting – but you have to wonder if the US’s transformation into a global bully might not strangle that love affair in the cradle.
