In a nation that has suffered under brutal British imperialism, and latterly submitted to vassal status under American domination, Ireland suffered a further humiliation by subjecting the historic Croke Park to the degrading spectacle of the National Football League (NFL) today.
The US sporting body, which routinely conducts militaristic displays during matches, was holding a regular-season contest for the first time on Irish soil. The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Minnesota Vikings 24-21 in front of a 74,512 crowd.
The run-up to the charade has seen strong criticism of the NFL’s links to US armed forces, particularly in the context of the genocide they are carrying out in Gaza alongside so-called Israel. The organisation’s racism has also come under the spotlight, particularly in relation to the treatment of Colin Kaepernick, whose outspoken stance on US racialised violence saw him ostracised within the league.
The NFL is a promoter of US imperial violence
Speaking to Irish sport outlet The 42, eight-time All-Ireland winner Michael Darragh MacAuley said:
I think this is this is an organisation that doesn’t hold a high moral bar to anyone.
It was correctly put to MacAuley that the Gaelic Athletic Association’s (GAA) record isn’t spotless either, with a failure to drop the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) target Allianz as a sponsor. However, he continued:
If anyone’s ever seen a [NFL] game on the telly, we’ve seen the military jets and the flyovers, we’ve seen all the salute to service. They don’t try and hide their patriotism for their American army.
I think it’s a very dubious one to, at least to get involved with. We’ve all seen what America have done. We’ve all seen them fuelling the Israeli army. We’re all disgusted with it.
Writing in the Irish Examiner, Colin Sheridan echoed those sentiments:
The NFL does not simply “play games”. It orchestrates rituals of obedience. In the US, as American sports writer Dave Zirin points out, every Sunday is theatre: military flyovers, troops saluted, anthems sung with compulsory reverence.
Dissent is not just discouraged but punished. Zirin calls it “the weaponisation of patriotism,” a flag-draped pageant that silences criticism and enforces conformity.
He went on to critique the NFL’s failings on race and economic inequality, pointing out the league’s role in exploiting young, often poor, Black men:
The NFL is a masterclass in racial capitalism. The league is 70% Black on the field and nearly 100% white in the boardroom. It profits from the bodies of young Black men, many from poor communities, sold to owners and fans as both warriors and entertainers.
Teams even employ sociologists when drafting players to assess their socio-economic origins, ranking their “hunger”. If a kid is too smart, he may suss the ruse too soon and hesitate to sacrifice his body. Poverty breeds hunger; hunger breeds desperation.
When Black players like Colin Kaepernick dared kneel in protest against police brutality, the NFL exiled him. When others spoke up, they were branded “unpatriotic.”
Disposable bodies – a legacy of traumatic brain injury
The abuse of these men’s bodies is thoroughly catalogued, with the NFL denying knowledge of the link between the participation in the sport and severe brain injury even after recognising it in its own investigations. A 1999 ruling that retired player Mike Webster has been left “totally and permanently” disabled as “the result of head injuries he suffered as a football player” was not made public, and the league only acknowledged the link between the sport and brain disease in 2016.
Sheridan went on to raise the spectre of the 1920 Bloody Sunday massacre, in which the savages of the British Black and Tans unit gunned down 30 innocent civilians at the stadium, following the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) assassination of 15 British intelligence agents. Now a force of cultural and economic imperialism parades at the stadium, not perpetrating violence on the turf, but glorifying US barbarism across the world. The US flag was unfurled, an emblem that should by now be seen as little better than a swastika.
The Irish government has backed the event, arguing it would:
…generate a strong return in additional economic activity for Ireland with a direct Exchequer return on the State’s investment of nearly two to one. Beyond tourism and economic benefits, the event is also delivering a range of opportunities for local businesses with the NFL also investing significantly in support of the game.
Up to 9.95 million euros in public funding to assist with hosting has been provided. Dublin Green Party councillor Janet Horner responded by describing the event as “a little bit undignified” and said:
It’s not serving the interests of the people of the city, it’s serving the interests of the American dollar.
A local mural was reported to have been vandalised to promote the event, with the Times Union saying the work – called “Do Not Remove” – was “painted over as part of a series of NFL-themed murals. The artist of the original work was reportedly not consulted.
Ireland must break free from a new model of colonial domination
Ireland, like countless nations across the world, has grown accustomed to seeing its culture and sovereignty undermined by the sheer force of American capital. US multi-national junk food outlets devour the high street, poisoning those who eat there. Our screens are filmed with US junk culture, promoting violence and narcissism. More seriously, our airports are facilitators of the hegemon’s imperial savagery, with Shannon and Aldergrove used previously as vectors for torture, and now conduits for genocide. Our economy is a spectacular act of anti-solidarity, successive governments imposing low corporation tax rates that fellate US tech giants and spark a global race to the bottom. The same corporations import vast quantities of electronic goods from the illegitimate Zionist entity, making Ireland the largest per-capita trader with the criminal regime.
The far-right likes to insist we ought to fear asylum seekers, among the most desperate people in the world, who need our help rather than our rage. It is the most powerful we should instead concern ourselves with – those who “arrive in private jets, not small boats”. Those like the NFL invaders who came, in Sheridan’s words, like “well-heeled colonial armies.”
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/NFL UK & Ireland
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