‘I went to NFL Dublin and it was an all-out blitz on the sporting senses’

“Look at 77!” was the shout.

There were two and a half minutes left in the third quarter of Dublin’s first-ever NFL game. The Pittsburgh Steelers, today’s “home team” playing 5,310km from their home stadium, sat on first and goal at the Minnesota Vikings’ four yard line.

But one person, right up the top of Croke Park’s Hogan Stand, had their eyes firmly fixed on the Steelers’ sideline. The NFL sideline is the least professional aspect of this most professional setup, more Sunday League than Premier League as players and coaches prowl their side scheming, chatting, and amping up their teammates on the field.

But offensive tackle Broderick Jones, wearing the black and gold #77, didn’t have his eyes on the action. They were firmly on the Hogan Stand, as he skipped the length of the 100-yard pitch, waving his arms in the air to get the crowd going.

We Irish love a good call and response, but this was miles away from your local Mass. Even still, the Pittsburgh faithful raised their voices – and their terrible yellow towels (not an opinion, but the official branding) – to meet Jones’ frantic dance.

It would be nice to think that that roar was what pushed Kenneth Gainwell over the line for his second touchdown of the day moments later. But Gainwell, subbing in for regular Steelers running back Jaylen Warren, who was out with a knee injury, ran up the purple gut all day, finishing with 99 rushing yards from 19 carries, as well as going 6/6 with his catches for another 35 yards, and 49 more yards on two kick returns, to go alongside his two touchdowns.

Any NFL rookies watching may have been fooled into thinking the former Philadelphia Eagle was the greatest player in the game today, as opposed to a backup utility back usually only spotted on special teams. So he probably didn’t need the extra push all told, but Croke Park gave it to him anyway.

Ireland’s first regular season NFL game was an all-out blitz on the sporting senses. The on-field action was mostly middling, but the noise, the colours, the dramatics, even the nachos – they were all-American, all the time.

Baseball is still America’s pastime, but the NFL calls itself America’s Game for a reason. Not America’s Sport – but America’s Game.

Because as a sport, there remains a high barrier to entry for anyone not brought up in it, to fully understand all that’s going on. There is a dedicated NFL community in Ireland, which is ever-growing – this reporter has been a part of that since he was a child – but a lot of floating voters on Virgin Media or Sky Sports may have struggled to make heads or tails of anything they were seeing.

However, as a game, as something to attend and view purely for enjoyment and fun, it is unmatched. We got the big bombastic national anthems, courtesy of Robert Mizzell and Lyra.

We got mid-game music from Galway’s Clada, positioned on a makeshift stage at the front of Hill 16, and the Steelers’ own pipe drum band. We got singalongs during timeouts, kiss cams, a great half-time show from Myles Smith, a big booming announcer voice every time the Steelers got another first down.

We got the bright colours, the big plays, the explanation of every refereeing decision over the stadium speakers to a panto villain response. We got the authentic NFL experience – with the notable exception of some of its more jingoistic elements, which were left parked at departures in Pittsburgh and Minneapolis.

There was no flyover by Armed Forces planes, no visible sponsorship, nor any of the other usual NFL “paid patriotism” that international viewers see on their screens weekly. The organisation is the most stereotypically American of all the American sports and, as such, comes in for criticism from several fronts.

It was no surprise to see pro-Palestinian supporters outside the game, given the League’s pro-military stance. Plenty has also been made of the €10 million spent to both bring the game to Dublin, and to bring Croke Park up to NFL code, while the now-traditional ticket price discussion reared its head again after a year of dynamic pricing nonsense across sports and entertainment.

But with the thousands of American tourists who have flooded Dublin and surrounding counties this weekend – one Green Bay Packers fan, there with his Vikings-supporting friend, told this website that they were staying as far away as Newtownmountkennedy in Co Wicklow – the city will make that money back, and then some. It is estimated that about 30,000 visitors made the trip over for Sunday’s game, and 27,000 US tourists pumped €115 million into the economy before, during, and after the 2024 college football game at the Aviva Stadium.

Walking through the city centre yesterday morning, the NFL was everywhere. Banners on every street from Grafton to O’Connell and up the walk to Croker, with large, inflatable balls and helmets spotted along the way too. The colours of all 32 teams could be seen and enjoyed – with plenty of Packers, Kansas City Chiefs, and Dallas Cowboys jerseys also on show.

Should the city also show the same dedication to, say, All-Ireland Finals, or big rugby or football fixtures? 100 per cent – the effort should be applauded, but it shouldn’t be a once-off because international eyes are on us.

It was a very different Croke Park crowd than the usual one, but the usual one shouldn’t just be tossed aside because they may make a drive home back down the country afterwards. In saying that, one Northern-accented family were spotted by this website divvying out the tinfoiled sandwiches in the queue for the Stephen’s Green pop-up shop – some old Irish habits will never die.

With the Steelers up 21-6 heading into the fourth quarter, this reporter – a first-time NFL journalist, but a long-weary Vikings fan – said: “15 points in a quarter isn’t impossible” when asked if the jig was up. As it was, the Vikings did indeed turn their putrid form around and score 15 points – they just needed 18 in the end.

A Chris Boswell field goal extended the Steeler lead to 24-6, but touchdown catches by Zavier Scott and Jalen Nailor, plus one extra point kick and one successful two-point conversion, brought that gap down to just three. At 5:38pm, Minnesota got the ball back with 1:02 left on the game clock.

As is the American sporting tradition, with their warped relationship with what a clock says, this 1:02 took around nine nonsensical minutes to complete. Carson Wentz – once Philadelphia’s next great hope at quarterback, now a second-stringer replacing an injured JJ McCarthy and playing on his sixth team in as many years – immediately arm-punted the ball to the Steelers’ James Pierre, seemingly ending the game.

That was until, upon review, the play was ruled an incomplete pass – for an interception to count in the NFL, the referees must decide that the defender has full control over the ball before it is grounded or goes out-of-bounds. It seemed a harsh call, and drew a flurry of boos from the fans, but the bemusement was only beginning.

Wentz then overthrew tight end Josh Oliver, but the Steelers were called for a holding penalty, giving the Vikings five free yards. Wentz was then sacked for seemingly the eighth time in the game, before an offside call ruled that out.

Then, after a couple of medium range pass plays, Wentz, in trying to avoid that eighth sack, was hit with an intentional grounding penalty for throwing the ball to precisely no one on purpose, before a bizarre delay-of-game penalty where the Vikings seemingly thought they were taking a timeout they didn’t have to take. And after all that, on 4th and 17, still in their own half, with 14 seconds to go, Wentz had no choice but to chuck it as far as he could and hope.

Unfortunately for him – and to the relief of the “home” crowd – he threw it right to the Steelers’ Patrick Queen. Game over, Steelers win, the towels go up in the air, (most of) the fans celebrate, the teams shake hands, the TV audience reflects on their crash course in the American football rulebook, and the NFL can relax after another successful Sunday of manufactured drama and world domination.

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