Dave’s Football Blog

Just wanted to wish everyone out there reading a happy holiday and a fun-filled New Year’s Eve — and if you’re a Premier League fan, a fun-filled Boxing Day. I’m going back to playing Geometry Wars Galaxies now. See you soon.

If you don’t live in Ireland or Australia, you probably have no idea that there’s a sea change coming in world football, and the demise of International Rules Football was just the start of it all.

As you might recall, the Gaelic Athletic Association scrapped the International Rules series with the Australian Football League after on-field violence marred the 2006 series. The AFL responded by raiding the GAA for football talent — and there was quite a bit of talent willing to travel to Australia to be the next Tadhg Kennelly, in no small part because AFL players actually get paid to play. Gaelic Football is strictly an amateur code, and some footballers would rather not have to give up their day jobs to play.

The sheer number of young players leaving for Australia, however, seems to have forced the GAA’s hand.

Stars of Ireland’s two homegrown sports for men, Gaelic football and hurling, called off strike plans Thursday after reaching a deal to receive payment for the first time in the 123-year history of their amateur leagues.

Sports Minister Seamus Brennan said that, starting in January, the government would begin paying out a total of €3.5 million (US$5.2 million) annually to the top 1,900 players in the Gaelic Athletic Association.

Their level of pay will depend on how far their county-based teams advance toward the all-Ireland championships staged each September, when crowds exceeding 80,000 pack Croke Park stadium in Dublin.

Keep in mind that Gaelic Football has been an amateur endeavor for the last 123 years. It’s a staple of sport and culture and history in Ireland, but it’s being overrun by the twin forces of globalization and professionalism, and this appears to be the only way for the GAA to keep their best and brightest from giving up dreams of Croke Park for cash in hand at Madejski Stadium and Melbourne Cricket Ground. Lots of traditionalists, like Tyrone volunteer Mark Conway, fear this is the end of their game, too.

Governments, our own included, stumble around trying to energise those two concepts. As Ireland increasingly comes apart at the social seams, we crave neighbourhood renewal … community development … community cohesion … social capital … and regeneration. Government invests hugely in trying, and largely failing, to create these things and scratches around for disappearing strengths such as citizenship.

All the while, for 123 years now, we’ve had something that’s delivered these in spades, quietly; unassumingly; but unbelievably effectively. That thing is the GAA. Yet, crazily, people now want to deconstruct it. Many of us will oppose the deconstruction of this prize-of-prizes that’s made an immeasurable contribution to Irish life. Because, anachronistic as it might be at the end of 2007, we actually believe in those things. …

It’s the one key difference between them and us: they pay and we don’t. Money corrupts, distracts, shifts the focus, demolishes “place”, attacks the value system, fosters greed, replaces “we” with “me.” Once you pay people to play sport, then whatever else you’ve got, it isn’t sport.

On the one hand, he makes a very valid point about how money corrupts a sport. One need not look past the bung culture in soccer, the endless recruiting violations in NCAA football, or the ongoing steroid scandals in any sport to see how much money changes things. Hell, rugby split in two a century ago over issues like this. It’s not really a new phenomenon.

On the other hand, people need to come to terms with the fact that their football game is not a beautiful snowflake. If you’re losing your best and brightest to a pro league that’s literally on the other side of world, you have to make tough decisions about the future of your game. It’s entirely possible that the GAA would fall apart within a couple of decades if it didn’t decide to do this, and I don’t think anyone in Ireland would want that.

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to combine local traditions and professional sport. One need not look past Athletic Bilbao in Spain to see that. If they can do it, so could the GAA. The next few years should be very interesting for Gaelic Football.

(Thanks, Sean!)

I’ve heard of giving yourself to a cause, but Reggie Brown of the Philadelphia Eagles takes it a little too far.

(Spotted on FanHouse.)

Could anyone other than Beat Takeshi come up with the idea of putting people in silly animal costumes and having them play rugby? Maybe, but it wouldn’t be quite as awesome.

(Spotted on With Malice.)