JUST FOR KICKS
With obvious transferable skills, an exciting opportunity now exists for GAA stars to earn untold riches in the NFL
WHEN the Kerry minors were in winning all round them, it generated endless speculation that a rare kicking talent was destined to make it big in a professional sport.
It may yet prove to be the case, but if it comes to pass, then it will be David Shanahan and not David Clifford who will cash in from his gifted boot.
The Castleisland man was part of the 2017 All-Ireland winning panel, which wrapped up the year with a Clifford solo show that saw him torch current Derry All-Star Conor McCluskey in the All-Ireland final for 4-4.
With another stellar talent in Mark O’Connor from the breakthrough team in 2014 — the Kingdom went on to win five in a row — plucked by the AFL, Clifford was being touted in some quarters to make the same journey, even though it was something that the Fossa youngster had never contemplated.
Shanahan, though, plotted his route that has now left him on the brink of making it in one of the richest sports in the world, as a punter in the NFL.
He will roll back into Dublin this August, when his Georgia Tech team take on Florida State University in what has now become the annual Aer Lingus College Football Classic game and by then the number of Irish players in the NFL may have swelled to a handful in the blink of an eye.
After all, when Wicklowborn Daniel Whelan punted for the Green Bay Packers against the Chicago Bears last September, he became the first Irishman in 32 years to play in the NFL since former Dublin minor Neil O’Donohoe kicked for the Bears, St Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in the 1980s.
Unlike Whelan, who moved to California when he was 13, Shanahan (right) has had to make his journey from scratch.
Having had his interest piqued by the fact that there were so many Australian kickers in the American college game, he ordered a ball online, started kicking it around his back garden and down his local Desmonds GAA pitch, before impressing the Melbourne-based Pro– kick agency enough that doors were opened for him at Georgia Tech. He heads into his final season of four this year, and while he is understandably coy about his chances of being picked up in the NFL draft, the likelihood is that a man who has literally gone around the world to chase his dream, is unlikely to give up on it now. And if he makes it, he may have more than Whelan for company as Monaghan’s Rory Beggan, Wicklow’s Mark Jackson and Down’s Charlie Smyth (all trialing as goal kickers), along with former Connacht rugby full-back Darragh Leader (trialing as a restart punter) will find out in the coming weeks if they have done enough to make an NFL roster or —at least — a practice squad. If they do, it will certainly be a whole new ball game. ‘When you play Gaelic football, you are in the game. If you have a bad possession, you can get back on the ball and make up for it but when you are a punter or a kicker, you might have only three or four shots a game to do your job and if you mess it up that’s it,’ said Shanahan yesterday, at a briefing ahead of his college’s visit to Dublin.
‘And you have only so much room to mess up so that was probably the thing that was the hardest to adapt to; the oneshot nature of being a punter in college football.
‘You get one go, and you either did your job or you didn’t.’
That serves as a stark reminder of the challenge and the culture change which faces the Irish quartet, headlined by Beggan, the Farney County’s All-Star goalkeeper and long-time leader.
The prospect of Beggan making it with a Gridiron franchise felt a little more real this week when it was confirmed that the Scotstown clubman, along with Smyth and Leader has been signed up by an NFL agency, Prostar Sports.
The reality is that Beggan, Jackson and Smyth still have a long way to go before signing on the dotted line with a franchise, with much hanging on next week’s ‘pro’ day at the University of California, which effectively amounts to a final audition in front of NFL clubs.
But the pathway to getting a contract has been widened by a stipulation that all 32 NFL clubs have to include at least one international player on their roster, in what is a strategic move by American football to broaden the appeal of their sport around the globe.
That appeal will hardly need selling to the Irish players, given that a professional contract is likely to be life-changing.
The minimum annual rookie contract for an NFL kicker is $860,000 (€790,000) and while that might still be a high bar to reach, they could also be drafted into practice teams which offer an average weekly salary of $5,000. But can they really make it?
‘I would say kicking translates better than punting, especially for a goalkeeper because it is really a very similar ball-striking motion,’ added Shanahan.
‘But at the same time, there are only 32 jobs for kickers in the NFL and there are really a lot of good guys coming out of college every year.
‘It is definitely possible and every NFL team gets an extra squad spot for an international player so if they can get in on that they will benefit from another year of coaching and then they have as good a chance as anyone if they put in the work,’ suggested Shanahan.
And if they make it, that could open the doors for others.
For example, what about someone with a skill-set like Cliffiord?
‘Definitely. I would say he has got more of a punter build than a kicker build, he is big and tall.
‘If he got 18 months to two years of good training, he would definitely do it.
‘And Seánie O’Shea is another, I would definitely fancy his chances as a kicker because they are obviously extremely good ball strikers.’
Enough in that to worry every Gaelic football fan in Shanahan’s home county.
“With two years training, David Clifford could make it”