In a stunning turn of events, Charlie Smyth, the Irish Gaelic football player who recently inked a deal with the Saints in the offseason, made a splashy debut in the NFL that left fans and teammates alike in awe.
Smyth’s moment of glory came in the form of a game-winning 37-yard field goal with just five seconds remaining on the clock, clinching a 16-14 victory for the Saints over the Cardinals in their preseason opener. Reflecting on his remarkable achievement, Smyth admitted that the reality of playing in the NFL is just beginning to sink in.
“That’s when it starts to hit you, playing these big NFL teams,” Smyth shared with BBC Sport in Northern Ireland. “To imagine a year ago, when I’d never kicked a football before, to where I am now, there’s too many people to thank at this stage. I feel like the luckiest man alive right now. It’s unbelievable. To be out here and showcasing yourself on the stage that it is, in the world’s biggest league, it doesn’t get much better than that.”
Throughout the game, Blake Grupe had been handling the kicking duties for the Saints, but when the crucial moment arrived for a game-winning field goal attempt, head coach Dennis Allen made the bold decision to put Smyth in the spotlight to see how he would perform under pressure.
“You miss, you lose or you score and you win,” Smyth remarked. “For that to be my first kick, it was the stuff of dreams. You imagine those scenarios when you’re growing up, last minute of the game scoring a ’45’ [a free kick in Gaelic football taken 45 meters from the goal]. If I missed that kick people would make assumptions, ‘he can’t handle the pressure’, but I just showed that I can and that’s why it felt so important.”
The fairy-tale ending of Smyth’s first American football game has left fans wondering what the future holds for this talented kicker. With a performance like that, he may just earn himself more opportunities to shine when the stakes are higher and the games matter for real. And as for Smyth, his journey from Gaelic football to the NFL is only just beginning, but with a debut like this one, the sky’s the limit for this rising star.