For the love of the game (pardon the cliché)

Posted by Hooff Cooksey

82,000 roaring fans cheer on their boys, their boys in blue.  The game comes down to wire, as the rain pours down.  Players dive for loose balls, knees buckle from bone crunching hits and every fan can barely stay in the stands.  The whistle blows, the game is over, the home team has won the All Irish Championship.

Dublin beats Laois 17 - 11 in croke Park on Sunday, June 5.

Oh, and by the way, no player on the field was paid a cent for this game, or any before for that matter.

The game described above was a Gaelic Football game at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland, hosted by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).  The GAA is an amateur organization; therefore its players and coaches do not get paid for their time and effort dedicated to winning their county or town a game or a championship.  Specifically, Gaelic football is played on a field larger than a soccer field, with 15 players on the field for each team.  To score a player can either kick the ball into a soccer goal or the uprights above the goal.  A ball in the netted goal is worth three points and a ball kicked through the uprights is worth one point.  Players can advance the ball by carrying it, bumping/passing it to a teammate or by soloing (dropping the ball and kicking it up to yourself).   

Check out this video to get a better understanding of how Gaelic football is played.

The GAA was founded in an effort to separate Irish sports from the English, and help to solidify the Irish as a very tough, resilient peoples.  Irish sports, like Gaelic football and Hurling, involve a great deal of physicality and require the players to have an endurance most human beings could never handle. 

It is interesting to note the impact GAA has on Ireland; one that far exceeds it being just an amateur sports organization.

Edelman’s annual trust barometer ranks a population’s trust in its government and private institutions of that country.  The Irish have very little trust in most organizations, however the GAA consistently ranks as one of the most trusted organizations in Ireland.  It is an untarnished sports organization that unites all of Ireland.  For these reasons, the GAA will most likely remain amateur for years to come. 

Jake Baranek talks about his thoughts on Gaelic football and the GAA.

GAA players and coaches participate for the love of the game and for the chance to represent their homestead.  Some of the players are actually unemployed.  Ireland currently has a very high unemployment rate, and all of these players have regular jobs during the day, between morning and evening practices.  This unemployment issue amongst players has raised concerns regarding player salaries.  However, the GAA means too much to the Irish people, and for the game to be changed with salary earnings, would only take away from the history and tradition of the organization that has been their for the Irish for over one hundred years.