Presumably they do not always give out free pints at Laverty’s Bar and Lounge in Mayobridge when a field goal goes over. That would be a terrible business model. The last few weeks, however, have been a joyous exception, the local punters proudly watching one of their own, Charlie Smyth, take another step higher up the mountain in this improbable rise from primary school teacher to NFL kicker in the space of less than three years.
With six seconds left on Sunday in New Orleans, and the Saints tied at 17-17 against the Carolina Panthers, Smyth was facing a moment that must have gone through his head a thousand times since he first left Gaelic football behind to attend an NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis two years ago; the chance to land a game-winning field goal in the NFL.
Smyth, like all other NFL diehards in the UK and Ireland, would stay up until the early hours of Monday mornings watching kickers deliver in those high-pressure moments. Now it was his turn, and he nailed it.
The signs were there back in January that New Orleans liked what they saw in Smyth, re-signing him to a two-year contract and keeping him on their practice squad to continue honing his craft, having signed him out of the 2024 international player program (IPP). When the Saints opted to move on from Blake Grupe, who had missed eight field goals this year, Smyth grabbed his chance.
There was just enough time for his parents to fly out to Miami to see Smyth’s debut against the Dolphins in person.
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A former goalkeeper in Gaelic football, naturally Smyth has a cannon of a right leg. His first NFL field goal from 56 yards might have been good from 65, maybe even 70. Add in the Saints recovering one of Smyth’s onside kicks – a desperation move which teams attempt to try to recover possession from a kick-off; only five have been successfully completed this season – and even though the Saints narrowly lost in Miami, Smyth could not have wished for a better start.
This week he was elevated from the practice squad to the main roster, a bump in pay from $234,000 (£175,000) to $840,000 (£629,500).
Last year I spoke with Tadhg Leader, a former fly-half in rugby union for Connacht and the USA, who now works as a kicking coach scouting athletes who could make it as kickers and punters in the NFL. While all the attention last year was on Louis Rees-Zammit, the Wales wing attempting to swap rugby for the NFL and signing for the Kansas City Chiefs, Leader was bullish about Smyth’s chances.
“He will be playing regular season games in the NFL in the next year or two, [the Saints] absolutely love him,” Leader said in October, an assessment which was right on the money.
‘Smyth was ready for that moment. He couldn’t make mistakes to be where he is now’
Chase Young, New Orleans Saints
Incredibly, Smyth is not even the first kicker from Northern Ireland to play in an NFL game this season. Londonderry’s Jude McAtamney featured in four games for the New York Giants, but two missed kicks (for extra points after touchdowns) in a narrow loss to the Denver Broncos led to McAtamney being cut.
Life as an NFL kicker is a brutal ride, something Smyth seems to have prepared for as his own toughest critic.
“[Smyth] is hitting 60-, 70-yarders in practice all the time. He was ready for that moment,” Chase Young, the Saints defensive end, said after the win over the Panthers. “He is real hard on himself. His whole journey, he could not make that many mistakes to be where he is right now.”
The NFL’s desire to expand its reach internationally is no secret, as discussed previously in these pages, with games this year held for the first time in Dublin, Berlin and Madrid and with Melbourne to come in 2026.
The other way to grow the game, of course, is to increase the international influence on each roster. Take the Philadelphia Eagles, last season’s Super Bowl champions, and their two offensive tackles, the giants tasked with protecting quarterback Jalen Hurts.
At right tackle you have Lane Johnson; first-round draft pick (fourth overall), Texas-born, went to college at Oklahoma, 6ft 6in and 23st. And at left tackle, Jordan Mailata. 6ft 8in, 26st. No college experience. Born in Bankstown, New South Wales, with a background playing rugby league in Australia. An IPP graduate in 2018 drafted in the seventh round who previously had no experience of American football. Now both are elite players at their position and Super Bowl champions.
Mailata might be a one-in-a-million athlete, and goal-kicking, while difficult, requires less intricacies than, say, learning wide receiver as Rees-Zammit tried before giving up on his move and returning to rugby in the Prem and with Wales. But the depth of untapped NFL potential across the globe is huge .
And the more the Mailatas and Smyths show that the jump can be made, more will attempt to make it. Although if Smyth keeps this up, Laverty’s will soon be running out of pint glasses.
Photograph by AP Photo/Gerald Herbert