One thing you can't fault Josh Pray for is enthusiasm. The US comic garnered a lot of attention in Ireland last week after he posted a video of his opinions on hurling after watching it for the first time. Now he's back with his kneejerk reaction to Gaelic football, and judging by the image of Paddy McBrearty in his video, he picked a hell of match to watch.
Pray discusses a lot of random aspects of the game, including the tackle, the amount of steps you're allowed to take, the fact that is amateur and, strangely, the respect players have for referees.
He shows a love for all the skills of game, saying "Can you imagine how frustrating and difficult it has to be for an American like myself to go to Ireland and try to pick up the game of Gaelic football?
"OK Josh, you gotta tackle that person but you can't use no hands! You gotta throw that ball over there but you can't throw the ball, you've got to slap the ball."
"You've got to run with the ball." I can run...
"But you can't run no more than five steps without bouncing the ball!"
He continues: "You can't take five steps so while playing Gaelic football you gotta be doing trigonometry and math in your head. You gotta be smart enough to do that." Ah shucks Josh, but to be fair, referees aren't exactly on top of overcarrying issues in the game at the minute. Speaking of referees, Pray somehow thinks we have a serious respect for the man in the middle:
The referees. This is the first sport that I've seen where the referees get the ultimate respect. You better not try a referee, you better not get smart with a referee; you better not huff, puff and blow a house down at a referee. You better not look at a referee the wrong way. Irish people might be the most respectful people on the face of the planet.
I mean, sure, we're not terrible but we're definitely not saints. Anyhow what impressed Pray most of all about Gaelic Games is the amateur ethos:
Let me tell you the part that blew my mind. All of these sports [GAA], at the highest level they play for free. When I say "for free" I mean for free. It's like you would teach in the day time and then you go play Gaelic football, you go play hurling, you go play camogie. You work at a grocery store then you go play camogie. You're a mechanic, you're a fisherman but on the weekends you go play hurling or camogie or Gaelic football...
For free? I ain't doing nothing for free. Breathing costs money, you're willing to go out there and breath in front of 80,000 people? Shout-out to every Irish person on this earth. They do this for the love of the game.
Well you have to admire his ability to suck up to GAA fans with that one. If there's anything a GAA supporter likes more than telling those who've never seen the sport that everyone plays for free then we have yet to see it.
Keep up the good work, Josh, we'll get you watching the Castletown Donkey Derby next.
