Welp, it’s not a Dawg kickoff this weekend, but the long stretch of college football-less weekends ends Saturday, and with a couple of teams that at least gives us someone or something to hate: Georgia Tech and a team from Florida. No, not that one, one of the other ones that self-proclaims championships because the machine worked against them. No, friend, not UCF.
Leave it up to the ACC to determine that their season opener has to go international to garner more viewers. Thanks to the expansion era and lawsuits pending from the two most successful schools in your conference to get the hell out of the league, the Another Crappy Conference is looking more and more like it’s throwing its own hail mary in an attempt to garner some respect, wherever they can find it. After the Seminoles were left in the rain on the side of the road as the party bus with the rest of college football drove off to the prom, the Seminoles and Georgia’s week 1 opponent, the Western Carolina Can’t-amounts, I mean, Clemson, are both doing everything they can to get out.
So where is the league headed for this week’s opener to the 2024 season? Dublin, Ireland.
Oh, and great news…the Gameday Crew, along with their poster child for Adderall, White Claws, and skinny jeans, Pat McAfee, will be in tow! And he could care less if you like the show or not, apparently, because they’re popular, bro. Quit being so extra, boomers. Skibbidy sigma, they’re entering their international era, and they know they ate. (Translation, if you don’t have a teenager in your house…quit throwing shade at the crew, old timers. They’re going global, because they know they’re good like that).
So I know what you’re thinking. What does a country – where football is what we call “soccer” in our unrefined state – know about American football? Do they even care, and what’s the draw for the ACC?
Let’s start with the easy part…why the ACC is choosing Ireland. The NFL began their International Series in 2002, starting in England, where NFL research (they do research?) estimated a 14.3 million NFL fans existing in the country. As far back as 1910, American Football made its way to the UK, but was mostly played between American servicemen and women until the 1980s, when the NFL first started toying with playing preseason games at Wembley Stadium. In 2007, an actual league game was played when the Dolphins played the Giants, and has played regular season games there ever since, excluding the COVID year of 2020.
UK viewership boomed since, including TV deals that includes a British broadcasting team included in Super Bowl telecasts that reaches the UK audiences. But what of Ireland? Is there interest at all?
Surprisingly (at least to me, until I started looking into this), Ireland has its own American Football league. Called American Football Ireland, they have 20 clubs playing in three divisions, from their AFI Premier Division, to a Division 1 and Division 2. The Premier League ends its season with the Shamrock Bowl, which most recently held its 33rd (!) competition, and the reigning champion the Belfast Trojans. Before we get ahead of ourselves here, let me show you a team picture:
I’m kidding…this is one third of the club, which is the Senior Flag Football team. They also have a youth football team, and their senior Premier League team which looks like a regular football team with pads, helmets, and the whole nine yards.
They utilize NCAA rules with “slight modifications”, per their webpage, but noted that the league started playing across the continent in 2015, and most recently noted an initial success internationally when they defeated the Belgium Wolfhounds in 2019. In other words, there’s more teams out there across the pond than we may know.
Currently, there is the European League of Football, which took the place of NFL Europe League, which started playing in 1991 as the World League of American Football but dissolved in 2007 due to diminishing profits and the NFL’s move to start playing league games in Europe.
In case you’re wondering, yes, there are “college football” teams in Ireland, although they exist within the AFI and play with other Premier teams. From what I could tell, the Dublin College UDC squad plays against another Dublin squad – the Dublin Rebels – and social media and websites look like they could care less about promotions and pomp and circumstance at all. Here’s a picture of the Dublin Rebels head coach, in what looks like a sunny day in Ireland in the most Irish picture I could imagine:
Of course, I may be missing some context here, because the websites and social for the AFI have about as much details and finesse to them as a 13 year old putting together a Google Slides presentation on the differences between physical and chemical reactions. And you know what…that’s okay. It looks like they have fun, take it fairly seriously, and have an appreciation enough for the sport. Kind of the opposite of the average Tech fan.
Anyway, the strangely worded text from the title “Is Seachtain Fuath i” is my best attempt at using Google Translate to say “It’s Hate Week” in the English to Irish conversion. One way or the other, I hope both teams suffer whatever they need to start their 2024 season. It could be a win that gives false hope that’s all sound and fury, signifying nothing, or it could be the first punch in the face of reality for either group, which both deserve. I’ll be watching with a grin on my face either way, knowing that one group’s last taste of college football was an old-fashioned “take your medicine” beatdown, or the other that hasn’t seen the happy side of football success in close to a decade.
Interestingly enough, my sentiments regarding the North Avenue Trade School are no different. I tried to type my most common thoughts about Tech into the Google Translate, interested to see how it read in another tongue, and I was pleasantly surprised. Here’s the translation, from English to Irish:
Fuck Tech.
Some things just really bridge the language gap nicely, don’t they?
If it’s gooooood enough for Coach Russell, it’s good enough for the us…Tuck Fech, Fuck Teck, Fuck Feck, Tuck Fech can Fuck Tech, North Avenue Fucking Trade School can get Fucked, Fuck Tech and their Fucking wreck….annnd To Hell with georgia Teeech…Fuck ‘Em…..GO DAWGS!!
And the mule they rode in on
Wait! I thought it was a jalopy.
Dang! I hope so! Jalopy is a better description for that busted arse rig nobody has wanted to be seen in since 1928 or whenever the heyell those nerds thought it was relevant. Like their sorry program
“I wouldn’t pull for Tech with both engines out on the team plane.”
-Jim Minter, as quoted by Lewis Grizzard.
Also Minter: “anyone who says they’re a Georgia fan, but they pull for Tech when we aren’t playing them is a damn liar.”
I don’t care for FSU, especially after all the gum flapping they did about getting passed over, and then about how they didn’t care about the Orange Bowl, and then about how they whined about how many starters they were missing, and then that the actual score didn’t matter because they would have won convincingly. But if they win after 6OTs on a busted play by Tech ok.
It will take us a while to get to Tech, but all that yapping about how great they’re doing needed a reality check
For you F$U haters out there, it’s time to put that aside for 1 week and focus your hate on where it really should go … the trade school.
Tuck Fech.
I hope they tie!!!
Are you hatin’ on free shoes cause they scored 3 vs UGA football or the fact UGA football didn’t hang 70 on that candy ass….GO DAWGS!!
Time to get fit Erk-style: Run 3 miles, hate Tech 4!
#GoDawgs
Noles -11…..I don’t see it. They lost a ton! Retread “Unga-lay-lay” is not a high caliber QB. Nerds keep it close….might even win it late.
Spent a week in Dublin and surrounding areas in the spring. They were advertising this game then.
Lovely country and people. Great trip, and they keep the best whiskey for themselves.
Go back and go west. It gets better.
Oh, no doubt. Would love to go back and do a loop around the island.
The occupied territories are worth a visit if you are into the history of it. It can get a really bleak in the bogside of Derry and in parts of Belfast. If Irish history isn’t your thing, I’d skip past some of the North for sure. For an island the size of South Carolina, the sheer amount of natural beauty is incredible. It seemingly never ends.
What a great week! Fly into Dublin today and hit a warm-up course. Good nights rest then play the great courses of Ireland Tuesday thru Friday. Mix in a stop at a distillery and fine pubs each night. Wake up Saturday and….fly home. Who the hell wants to pay to watch those two crapsaster teams play?!
It would be funny to go to the game wearing Georgia gear, though you might need to be ready to defend yourself from any fans who have been drinking. Piss off both fan bases simultaneously.
Some Irish observations…At its heart Ireland is not a “soccer” country.
Soccer = England
England = spawn of satan to the Irish
The Irish main sports are either Hurling or Gaelic football or rugby(where they can legally knock the shit out of the English)…hit up the youtube and check those sports out.
imho…Hurling combines baseball, lacrosse, football all in one. all played as amateurs(no one is paid)… you play for the county that you were born in…tournament culminates in champ game played in 80k stadium…new meaning to your local civic pride for the winners.
I know of several dudes that play (american) football in England leagues. the skillset range is dramatic…mostly rugby players giving “a go” to try american football. but most of the inspiration came from europe nfl. most of the coaches in those league came / played in the euro nfl.
when we first moved to europe and I was on a morning jog in Amsterdam, much to my surprise, I stumbled on a baseball game… I assumed that it was american GIs but as i got closer, my ears picked up the gutterly Dutch language…surreal to see and hear our pastime being played and hearing non-english/spanish being spoken.
I was going to agree that one of the great things of the Gaelic Athletic Association is that you play for your birth county, but I did some research and found that should you move, you can apply to play for the county where you live. So even the GAA has a transfer portal…
When we were in Holland years ago on the train form Schipol to Amsterdam we always saw baseball being played on a field you could see from the train. Even in the rain. Bert Blyleven, a hall of famer I believe, was born in Zeist, Netherlands.
That’s Bert “Be home” Blyleven.
my apologies, i forgot to say… fuck the nerds
Hurling were they turn the Irish loose to fight with clubs. Seems about right, I’m Scotch/Irish so I hate myself. LOL!
Seachtain Fuath i – maybe Google translate has the words right, but did it also tell you how to speak it?
Guaranteed since they’re playing in Ireland, Coach O’leary updated his resume to show he’ll be the honorary coach…
I spoke to my Irish cousin and have the translations straight from the mother country regarding “Hate Week”
Hate Week = seachtain na fuatha (shock-tin na fu-a-ha)
Hate Week is here/It’s Hate Week = ta seachtain na fuatha ann (thaw shock-tin na fu-a-ha on)
Go Dawgs = Dawgs Abù (Dawwwgs a-boo)
That’s good stuff. Google was close, but I can’t say it’s always accurate. I wondered too how it would sound.