By Karl O’Kane

Copyright irishmirror

America Inc was on full display at Croke Park yesterday as the first ever NFL game was staged in Dublin. At a couple of junctures it was easy to forget there was an actual football game taking place – but the entire event itself was a staggering and hugely impressive production. It wasn’t quite a 76,000 sellout -with Croke Park’s capacity reduced from 82,000 – with the attendance announced at 74,521, but that didn’t matter one iota, with TV audience and ad breaks where it’s at. During one break in the game in the second quarter a random punter kicked three short range field goals in a row in his loafers to win eight grand. Then out of nowhere a céilí band suddenly burst into life from a podium in the shadow of a seated Hill 16. No sooner had they stopped playing than DK Metcalf scored an 80 yard touchdown for the Pittsburgh Steelers off Aaron Rodgers pass. Next up were the ‘Pop Tarts, Love Hearts,’ where a camera scanned around Croke Park picking out couples on the big screens to check out what their level of affection towards each other is when 75,000 people are watching. The only surprising thing was they didn’t win a toaster and packet of Pop Tarts. This was all in the space of two absolutely relentless minutes of sales entertainment on one of Ireland’s prime pieces of real estate. Soon afterwards, singer songwriter Myles Smith was out on stage as the half-time show. To be sure to keep it Irish we also had the Artane Boys Band to go with the Steelers own personal drum band, the ‘Steeline.’ It’s no secret that the Americans know how to put on a show, but the NFL is in a different league, and it was hard not to be impressed with the overall product as the sensory onslaught continued. Soon enough there were kids shooting free gear into the crowd. You wouldn’t want to have been of a nervous disposition either with speakers in the press box bellowing out the referee’s decisions. Soon enough fellas were running back and forward along the endzone with flags after a touchdown. Interestingly, there were no cheerleaders though. Maybe not for a European audience. We got in-game injury updates. We’re still waiting on one of those from Jim Gavin going back to 2019 that might make a good question in the presidential debate. We had the FedEx sponsored ‘Follow the Football’ on the big screen where three boxes were shuffled around and you had to keep a close eye on which one the American football was in. For the record, it was in box one. We found out that Aer Lingus were an official partner of the Steelers, because the hoardings around Croke Park told us so. There’s a Bud Zero. Who knew? That one was for the American crowd at home. There was even a lad whose job it was to sprint onto the field and pick up the tee after every kick. The speed of him. Great to see a man taking his job seriously. If a crowd couldn’t get into this sport they never would, and this one certainly did, with Dublin buzzing from early in the day and smiling, happy faces every time the big screen panned onto the paying punters, We also had Katie McCabe, Hannah Tyrrell and Bundee Aki from the Irish sporting world. Soon enough Paudie Clifford was swinging ‘a terrible towel,’ which is not a towel that is too fluffy or too hard, but a ‘rally towel’ that Pittsburgh fans swing in the air like football fans do with a scarf. Paudie looked ever so slightly skeptical in that Kerry way, but was swinging away anyway. The atmosphere was electric at times as the big screen implored fans to ‘get louder,’ ‘scream’ and more at regular junctures. Sure what else could you do only scream louder. It was ‘Groundhog Day’ again with Billy Murray at yet another sporting event on Irish soil. Murray was at a senior club hurling championship game recently and has been a regular attender at Munster Hurling Championship matches in recent years. No sign of JP McManus this time though. The starting players ran out one at a time with plenty of them appearing to take a knee in prayer before the start of the game. Thankfully, the military element was kept to a minimum with three US army and three Irish army personnel holding their country’s flags up pre game. What the army has to do with a sporting event is anyone’s guess though? And what American football has to do with the GAA is another obvious question. Bar the obvious financial benefits of staging an event that the government helped to fund to the tune of €10 million and estimates will bring €64 million into the Irish economy. Who profits most from that is deeper question. The GAA though was set up as a bulwark against British colonial rule, to preserve and foster Irish identity and Croke Park is where ‘Bloody Sunday’ happened. Maybe that’s not what the GAA is about any more, but if it is, this seems at odds with American interference in the affairs of other countries going back decades, and the arms they’re providing to Israel for the ongoing genocide in Palestine, confirmed recently as a genocide by the UN. Can you seperate American Football, which has strong military links, from the actions of the country? That’s a matter of personal choice. No question it’s all about the bottom line and greenbacks, but this also goes hand in hand with the more subtle spreading of American cultural values and ideals of consumerism and individualism that have abounded from Hollywood right through to Netflix for over a century. The Americanisation of our children and our culture – in thoughts, actions (and kind of like hilariously, accents) – has been going on for decades and is probably a bigger debate for another day. At the start of the game a pundit out on the pitch wearing a farmer’s flat-cap – it didn’t look like a nod to old Ireland or that he borrowed it at a mart – declared it a home game “on home soil” for the Steelers. “Home Soil.” Okay, fair enough. The majority of the crowd were Steelers fans though, so it did feel like a home match. And at times the deafening noise the fans created when the Vikings were attempting to make a big third down play was a clear advantage to the Steelers. Soccer is the bigger sport but in terms of finance, nothing touches the NFL. Games have been played regularly at Wembley since 2007, while NFL has also been played in Germany, Mexico, Brazil and Spain, with other countries in the pipeline. The Steelers are one of six sides to have been granted ‘international rights’ to games in Ireland. Did anyone check with us first? The others are the Green Bay Packers, New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars, the Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs. No doubt Croke Park was a game breaker for the NFL and the government, with the next biggest capacity stadium in Ireland, Lansdowne Road at 51, 700. At times Croke Park seems to big for the GAA. There is no such thing with the NFL. The bigger the better. The League’s TV rights alone are worth a staggering $111 billion over 11 years and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has already said they will be back to Ireland. Expansion is the name of the game – the sport and the culture. Merchandising, TV rights and opening up new markets. When it comes to cash though, it seems to be a case of grabbing a piece of the action or watching someone else take it from you. Economic realities. For now, literally the greatest travelling show in the world moves on to London next week where the Vikings will take on the Cleveland Browns at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. One thing is certain. The NFL will always bring the noise, but we can question the level of it and what lies behind it.