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15th Aug 2018

WATCH: Chris O’Dowd explains the concept of Gaelic Football to US audiences live on Jimmy Fallon

Dave Hanratty

Chris O'Dowd GAA Jimmy Fallon

“It’s a great sport. You should try it if you like wrestling or death.”

A typically lively Chris O’Dowd stopped by one of the biggest talk shows in America on Tuesday night, with GAA on the brain.

Jimmy Fallon noted that his guest Roscommon native seemed to really enjoy the recent FIFA World Cup, judging by his social media reaction to the summer’s events in Russia.

“I love the World Cup,” the Roscommon native began.

“I like soccer. I was more of a Gaelic football guy.”

Quickly sensing that there might only be about “four people” in the audience who knew what he was on about, O’Dowd provided a quick primer on the subject.

“Gaelic football is a sport they just play in Ireland,” he began.

“It’s played a lot by farmers, people from the countryside, very rural, very rough, brutal but beautiful like a big wave or having a statue fall on your nuts or something.”

O’Dowd then went on to detail the various scrapes he’s gotten into over the years playing the game.

“I broke my nose a couple of times, this finger is a different size than this finger, different kind of ankles… I have the skeletal structure of a very old giraffe.”

Despite his war wounds, the actor did his utmost to encourage those watching.

“Great sport! You should try it, if you like wrestling or death.”

Clip via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

O’Dowd is no stranger to bigging up the sport, with the former Roscommon minor goalkeeper having previously fondly recalled his experiences of the game, and his fondness for legendary Roscommon goalkeeper Shane Curran, on The Sunday Game some years back:

Clip via RTÉ

Elsewhere on his Tonight Show appearance, O’Dowd said that he was happy to see France win the World Cup, as he was living in Paris during their 1998 triumph.

His story of his time in the French capital is a good one, as he found himself working in an Irish bar and having to deal with drunken pandemonium following the World Cup final.

“We tried to get on somebody’s boats, and this guy jumped out shouting that his family were on the boat.

We slept on his dinghy, six of us! We woke up the next morning and the first thing we saw was the Eiffel Tower and we thought, ‘This is living.'”