First piece since Poynter Seminar

SamMonson · May 17, 2008

Hey guys.

This is my first post, so I suppose I'd better give a brief intro as well.

I'm an Irish sports journalist, lagely trying to raise the profile of American Football over this side of the pond, and writing for a website - www.footballdiner.com - which aims at doing just that.

I recently attended a Poynter Inst. Summit on Sports Journalism, and this is the result: A peace to feature in a magazine over here. Thoughts/critique would be gratefully received. (bear in mind the Irish location for spelling..)

Sam

On a crisp Sunday afternoon, a lone figure breaks the stillness on the open grass. Pushing his charge, leaving a white chalk line in his wake, it’s hard to imagine that this signals the coming of the storm – America’s Game is about to be set loose on the Emerald Isle.

From one end of the field come the first few players, the scout party signalling the approach of the battalions following behind. They walk slowly, carrying their helmet and pads by their sides, each in his own quiet state, preparing for the cacophony of impending violence.

Dark clouds remain unmoved in the afternoon sky, a hanging sword of Damocles forever threatening to break its tether and release the rain, adding yet more water to an already muddy field.

The next three hours of crunching impact and fevered strategising signals the beginning of the Irish American Football League (IAFL) season, in which nine teams will strive to outwit, out-muscle, and dominate their opposition in the chase for the Shamrock Bowl. This is American Football, Irish style.

The game of American football has been taking hold around the world for some years now. Over the last fifty years it has become America’s favourite sport, and now the NFL is trying to push it overseas. Just last season the NFL held its first regular season game outside North America, when the New York Giants met the Miami Dolphins in Wembley Stadium. The NFL is becoming a global brand, and Irish fans are jumping on board.

American football always had a small following in Ireland and the UK, dating back to the days where Channel 4 would show late night games and highlight packages of the NFL in the 1980s. This strong core of fans never went away, even through the television dark ages, and was ultimately rewarded when BSkyB gained the rights to NFL TV coverage and began to broadcast live games on Sunday nights.

Now they can watch three live games each Sunday, another on Monday nights, and even more, late in the season when Thursday games begin. The NFL fan has never had so much direct access to the game, and it is only going to improve as the NFL strives to promote the game abroad. The Wembley game has already become a fixture on the NFL calendar, with a commitment from the league for a further three years. Now Irish fans can see a game live without planning a trans-Atlantic voyage, it needs only placing their lives in the hands of Ryanair for the short flight to London.

The NFL is clearly a made-for-TV sport. Viewers are quickly sucked in and captured by the high octane violence, the bone crunching hits, and the athletic freaks of nature on display. No other game can provide as many quality moments during the course of the contest as American Football can, whether that moment be a hit that takes a player off his feet, a 60 yard, one handed catch, or a dazzling run along the ground for a touchdown. But while the game is an institution in America, it is only just beginning to take hold in Ireland.

The IAFL was founded in 1984, during the first wave of American Football to hit Europe, and has experienced both ups and downs in its 24-year history, but it has found itself experiencing something of a resurgence in interest recently, with more and more young people wanting to try to play the game they’ve become addicted to on the TV.

What these new players will find when they join one of the sides in the IAFL is a team, a team brought together by a passion for a game that gives you a set of pads and tells you to go out and hit people. The cost to players is some pain, some money, and a weekly commitment to the training and games, but the payoff is being a part of a team spirit, and getting to go out on a weekly basis to play a game that most people have never had the opportunity to play before.
In the past American Football was a game played in a distant land, by athletes distilled in a system geared to producing bigger, faster and stronger professional players. It was a game played by people that nobody could ever expect to compete with, even if they were given the chance. Now anybody with the time and inclination can sign up, suit up and start dishing out some pain.

The game itself is one of inclusion. Between hulking offensive or defensive linemen and slight but speedy wide receivers or cornerbacks, the game caters for all shapes and sizes. If you have the desire to go out and play hard, you’ll find a place on a team. Head Coach for the DCU Saints, David Rothwell noted the cyclical nature of the interest in the game from the 80s to the present day, and also believes the increased interest in the NFL, and the push from the league to increase its fan base in Europe “has a trickledown effect on us playing the game – we get more people signing up.”

Coach Rothwell has been preparing to lead his team into the 2008 IAFL campaign over the winter months, but when the whistle blows he is relegated to standing on the sidelines, watching the team that he has crafted reap the reward for their effort.

Only after the game reaches its conclusion, with the final seconds being run off the clock, can he celebrate or commiserate with his team of battered players. This week the DCU Saints have won. In the miserable conditions they ground out a 44-0 victory over the Tallaght Outlaws in the second game of their young season.

Every man involved is soaked to the skin, covered in mud, and sporting the beginnings of tomorrow’s bruises. Every man involved has also just spent their Sunday as part of a team, united in a common cause, and will be back to do it all over again next week. That is football, Irish style.

And so the two teams of mud-stained warriors, one wearing the smiles that only victory can create, the other bearing the heavy burden of defeat on their shoulders, meet in the middle of what was once a field of grass to shake hands, and congratulate each other on a battle well fought.

What was once a pitch, being marked off with chalk lines is now a stretch of mud-soaked wasteland, the aftermath of the battle waged on its surface. That battle has been won, and now the players exit in the same direction from which they came, half with a spring in their step, already regaling each other with their personal glories from the game, the other half, with slow, laboured steps. They’ll be back next week. Another chance at victory in the IAFL. Another chance to be the side wearing smiles as well as mud.

That is football, Irish style.
Click to expand...

Stitch · May 19, 2008

I would have liked to see quotes. Get some background into the players. Are they from a soccer, rugby, or Gaelic football background?

As for style, you switch from American Football to American football. Sword of Damocles? Rain during a football game isn't dangerous.

DanOregon · May 19, 2008

Those Poynter Institute seminars are like meth to a journo. You come out of one and you want to write an epic out of an everyday brief. Not criticizing the piece or the seminars. They surely recharge the batteries, I just wish the day to day world of journalism was more like what you learn in those seminars.

Stitch · May 19, 2008

I get that feeling about seminars too. "Focus on enterprise and investigative journalism." Of course they don't tell you how to work that in when you're busting your butt on the day-to-day stuff already.

SamMonson · May 19, 2008

Stitch said:

Sword of Damocles? Rain during a football game isn't dangerous.
Click to expand...

It is when the pitch becomes a puddle, and there's real potential for actually drowning at the bottom of a pile.

What's the issue with Sword of Damocles?

Stitch · May 19, 2008

The Sword of Damocles would mean the players would be have a constant danger over their heads. Using the quote for something simple as rain waters down the metaphor.

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First piece since Poynter Seminar

SamMonson New Member

Stitch Active Member

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First piece since Poynter Seminar

SamMonson New Member

Stitch Active Member

DanOregon Well-Known Member

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SamMonson New Member

Stitch Active Member

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