For many Irish people of a certain vintage, American football will conjure up memories of watching the 49ers or Dolphins on Channel 4 in the late 80s via flickering screens in the wee hours.
But with the new NFL season set to take off on Thursday and growing interest in the game on this side of the water, three Irish startups are fuelling a data and analysis evolution in ‘America’s game’.
With the old movie cliche of ‘a game of inches’ apparently more relevant than ever before (last year’s Superbowl was lost in the final seconds due to an error in play calling), teams are investing heavily in sports science, data analysis and injury prevention, in a bid to protect their prize assets.
Coaches like Chip Kelly of the Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks boss Pete Carroll are embracing modern techniques around recovery, heavy training time and even mindfulness, to ensure players are in peak condition.
It seems the famed ‘Moneyball’ approach of finding an angle for competitive advantage is extending into other sports and techniques.
Upon his arrival in 2013, Kelly hired the NFL’s first ‘sports science coordinator’ with a background in injury prevention programs for the Navy SEALs. The Eagles have also invested over $1 million on technology like heart monitors and GPS systems.
While this amount of money might seem excessive, it pales in comparison to the $133 million teams pay their players each season. Why wouldn’t an NFL team spend money to try to keep its players on the field?
Aggressive
As part of this growth, three Irish startups are expanding into the gridiron market. While talk of moving an NFL game to Croke Park has cooled down, it seems this country’s impact on the league is manifesting itself in other ways.
Kitman Labs, an injury prevention and athlete management startup whose investors include Leinster Rugby start Jamie Heaslip have been aggressive in expanding into Silicon Valley.
This week the company announced its entry into the NFL via a new partnership with the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins become the first pro football team to purchase the Kitman system, which improves player availability by curtailing injury risk through proprietary data technology.
According to CEO Stephen Smith, who also has a background in professional rugby squad preparation, “American football is a strenuous game — its athletes deserve to have their health optimised to the greatest extent that science and technology will allow, we’re committed to providing a solution that improves team performance and prolongs athlete careers.”
In addition to the Dolphins, Kitman Labs now has agreements with all four professional Irish rugby clubs, the Irish national rugby team, Bath Rugby, Everton FC, and Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays.
Concussion
With concussion and heavy impact such a hot topic in American football currently (a contentious new movie on the topic starring Will Smith will be released at Christmas), another Irish company is helping to ensure the training ground is at least safe.
Limerick’s Shadowman Sports has developed a mobile tackling tool, the only such option on the market. The three-part system includes an inflatable dummy, a slide and a harness, allowing coaches to recreate realistic tackling scenarios.
While the NFL is still to be cracked, Shadowman, led by CEO J.P. Hartigan, has a strong base. It counts circa 50 high level colleges, including Notre Dame, Arizona, Virginia Tech and Texas A&M, along with hundreds of high schools and smaller schools on its roster.
Fatigue
Elsewhere Sligo based Orreco, founded in 2009 by Dr Brian Moore and Dr Andrew Hodgson is also looking for NFL expansion. In a similar vein to Kitman, the focus is on recovery and biomarker analysis, helping athletes recovery faster, reduce illness rates and guard against excessive fatigue.
The company already has a base in ‘the Valley’, with current customers including Graeme McDowell and Newcastle United F.C.
Away from the startup scene, individual Irish practitioners are also being sought by NFL teams. The San Francisco 49ers, another team to embrace technology (they recently moved into a one of the most tech-enabled stadiums in the world) attracted former Dublin GAA consultant Dr. Fergus Connolly into a new role. A son of Scotstown, Co. Monaghan, 38 year old Connolly holds a top class C.V. across a variety of sports, and has moved to become Director of Elite Performance in the Bay Area.
Overall, it seems that while most Irish males might not have the bone density or speed of foot to gain fame and fortune as an offensive lineman or wide receiver, given our tech, startup and sports science expertise, there’s a growing cluster of companies ready to act as smart support to high value players.
Considering the NFL is the most lucrative league in the world according to Forbes, with each team worth on average $1.1 billion, it wouldn’t be a bad consolation prize.
Thank you to Shane O’Leary for this guest post. Shane is an advertising strategist and freelance journalist covering sports, tech, marketing and culture. You can follow him @shaneoleary1 or find his writing at shaneoleary.me.
