Gaelic Games

Dean Rock turned down trials for NFL’s international player pathway

Former Dublin footballer was approached to travel to London with a view to joining the group of GAA players who travelled to America

Former Dublin footballer Dean Rock was approached to trail for the NFL. Photograph: Tommy Dickson/Inpho

Seán Moran
Fri Apr 5 2024 - 13:27

Retired Dublin footballer Dean Rock was approached with view to trialling for a kicking contract in American football. The kicking camp was organised in London by former Connacht rugby player Tadhg Leader, founder of the Leader Kicking initiative.

It led to invitations to attend the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, which culminated in a contract with New Orleans Saints for former Down goalkeeper Charlie Smyth.

Senior county ‘keepers Rory Beggan of Monaghan and Wicklow’s Mark Jackson also participated and await further word, as both have rejoined their county panels in advance of the opening weekend of the football championship.

Asked about the interest from American football, Rock said:

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“I was due to go to London but I didn’t go. It will probably become something that younger players will explore now that there’s an opportunity there potentially. People can make dreams for themselves and why not? There are a lot of transferable skills on the kicking side of things between Gaelic and American football. Kicking the ball isn’t overly difficult so the players could be quite good.”

Asked had he been invited to attend the kicking camp with Leader, he replied, “Yeah. I chose not to. Too old!”

He was speaking to The Irish Times at a round-table discussion on the football championship, which starts this weekend. Taking part were the newspaper’s long-standing columnist Darragh Ó Sé from Kerry, Rock, who is joining as a new columnist each week from Saturday April 13th and Donegal’s Michael Murphy, who is also starting a weekly column, from next Monday April 8th.

The round-table discussion will publish in Saturday’s Irish Times.

Seán Moran

Seán Moran

Seán Moran is GAA Correspondent of The Irish Times

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