‘The NFL is coming here to plant a flag’, warns Dave Zirin ahead of Croke Park fixture
THE NFL coming to Croke Park is “a conquering, not a sharing”, the esteemed American sportswriter and author Dave Zirin has warned the GAA.The Pittsburgh Steelers will meet the Minnesota Vikings at the Gaelic Athletic Association’s Dublin headquarters on Sunday September 28, but the New Yorker insists that “the NFL coming over here is not a cause for celebration…“If anything, I think of a line from Geena Davis in the movie ‘The Fly’, where she looks at Jeff Goldblum and she just says, ‘Be afraid, be very afraid’.”Zirin, sports editor at ‘The Nation’, stressed that the choice of venue is important to those pushing ‘America’s game’ globally:“I’m very concerned about the GAA sort of branching out from trying to protect and nurture Irish sports - because the NFL coming to Croker and not to Aviva is very symbolic for the people that I have been speaking to.“Croker is about the glory of Irish sports and the nurturing of Irish sports - so to have the NFL go to that stadium in particular…in the high up of NFL circles they are high-fiving each other about being at Croker instead of Aviva.“Because it’s about being inside to plant that flag, where previously that flag would have been denied. So it is a conquering, not a sharing.”While in Belfast Zirin visited the Irish language sports and well-being facility Spórtlann na hÉireann, hearing of its efforts to improve the physical and mental health of working class people across the city.Spórtlann na hÉireann Director Seán Mistéil said: “Our primary objective is to use sports and culture to improve the lives of people living in one of the poorest areas on these islands, and we were proud to share our progressive vision with Dave Zirin.“Spórtlann na hÉireann boasts state-of-the-art facilities which we utilise to promote health and wellbeing, to develop the Irish language, and to challenge poverty and marginalisation alongside our partners in Coláiste Feirste.Dave Zirin (right), Sports editor at The Nation, during a visit to Coláiste Feirste, who won a camogie final while he was in west Belfast.
PICTURE: COLM LENAGHAN “This has seen us intertwine physical recreation with initiatives like our anti-racism week, language development, and our work on challenging sectarianism.“Dave is a giant in the field of sports journalism, and he has courageously used his platform to promote progressive causes and champion the oppressed.“We hope to build on our relationship with him in the period ahead as we work to re-establish the people-first ethos that should be found in all of our sports.”Irish Sport for Palestine is involved in Zirin’s visit to Ireland and he highlighted the NFL’s unsavoury involvement with the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip:“There is a connection between the National Football League and efforts to depopulate Gaza and to buy settlements in the West Bank.“There are several NFL owners, who are some of the most powerful, wealthy people in the United States, who are deeply invested in that project.”The 51-year-old also noted the attitudes the NFL will bring to Ireland, commenting:“With these [current] issues of nationalism and militarism, and the far right are really on the front burner, and the National Football League is not a bystander to that movement or process.“I think people need to understand that there is tremendous truth in one of the central slogans of the National Football League, and that is, ‘Football is America.’“That is true, it’s been true for decades... ...People really need to ask themselves - what does America look like in 2025? “A time when we are sliding towards autocracy in the United States, a time when thousands of Irish Americans are moving here when, of course, the traditional story is people from Ireland moving to the United States.“I think of the Pogues song, Thousands Are Sailing; well, they’re going in the opposite direction now…“That’s the United States right now, it is becoming quite dystopic and dangerous...”Zirin concluded by saying that the NFL really represents ‘America First’ rather than any idea of internationalism:“If the NFL is America, then that’s the America that’s coming here.“You could call it soft power, but I’ve been saying this to people over and over:“The NFL is not coming here to plant a tree - the NFL is coming here to plant a flag.“This is not about the glorious internationalism of sports, which you see in other sports like basketball or baseball“When you talk about football, it’s American through and through, US through and through, and they are trying to expand, not by respecting local cultures, but from above.”
