The NFL comes to Dublin this weekend, but this event is about more than helmets and touchdowns. When the Pittsburgh Steelers face the Minnesota Vikings at Croke Park on Sunday, it won’t just be a game. It will be an American export loaded with politics, power, and money.  

The NFL has long been linked with the US military, its pageantry often doubling as unashamed Pentagon-backed propaganda. The Vikings’ owner, Mark Wilf, chairs the Jewish Agency for Israel, which supports settlement building in the occupied West Bank. And while Ireland will bank millions in tourist revenue, some see the whole spectacle as sportswashing on a global stage. 

On today’s podcast, Ciara Doherty is joined by Off The Ball producer Mick McCarthy to ask whether this is a sporting triumph or, as critics argue, a soft power Trojan Horse. They discuss American football’s close links with the Trump administration in the United States, the shadow of Colin Kaepernick’s protest era, the silence of today’s NFL, the blurred line between cultural exchange and imperialism, and whether Croke Park should brace for demonstrations when ‘America’s Game’ kicks off in the home of the GAA.