Ross Bolger: The Laois footballer turned American football kicker with the world at his feet

Battered, bloodied, and bruised, he touched down in Manchester. A botched hamstring, several stitches in his head, and throw in a hangover for good measure. A prime athlete, with about as much energy as a captive sloth in the winter of his unimaginative existence.

Kevin Moran told Manchester United it was nothing serious, a kickabout, a bit of craic. Kevin Moran lied. Sure what would the English know about Gaelic football? They couldn’t even get his name right.

The cross-code game is a dying art. The heroic Teddy McCarthy’s passing was the end of something that hardly even began. Liam and Sam, like two brothers with bad blood, synonymous with each other, the same DNA, yet forever apart. It would take a rebel to establish such a link.

When Pittsburgh Celtics GAA sorted Laois’s Ross Bolger with a job and accommodation last summer, little did he think he would be the next heir to the throne of this remarkable Irish sporting dynasty. And yet there is more pride in his voice when he speaks of Killeshin, and how he helped save them from the jaws of the Intermediate ranks last year.

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In Ireland that can make a hero out of a boy. In America, it’s a drop in the ocean. An ocean that spans over 4000 kilometres from Achill to Maine. Idaho is even further beyond the horizon, but for this 20-year-old, it is so close he can almost taste it.

“There’s been lads I’ve met in America that have been trying to get Division 1 scholarships all their lives, and we’ve managed to achieve it in a few months. 

"Some people you have to explain how big a deal it is.

“Then I’ve had lads coming up to me saying: “I heard you’re going to the NFL!”, and then I’m like: “No, no, it’s only college.”

“It’s only college” is quite the understatement, the kind of mentality his tutor Tadhg Leader is keen to blow out of the water. The stats are almost nausea-inducing. Scholarships such as Bolger’s with Division 1 college teams can equate to $250,000 and beyond. Crowds can reach 85,000, with spectators paying up to $40 to watch the next generation of talent.

Former Connacht man Leader made his own venture stateside to pursue a kicking career, using any learnings to perfect his business, Leader Kicking. Bolger, an ex-Laois U20 footballer, became aware of the Immersive Programme through social media. 

Much water has passed under the bridge since. The pair have become quite the duo.

“If we don’t see each other in person, we're texting. We’re constantly on the phone to each other, and there’s always something to learn from Tadhg. I’ve got on really well with Tadhg since September, we’ve put in serious hours.

“Zoom sessions with coaches could go on for an hour, and after that I could be on the phone with Tadhg for another hour talking about how it went.”

Bolger’s success is exactly what Leader had foreseen at the origins of his business. A talented intercounty footballer, with a pure strike, and a multi-sport background, with the Laois man having become accustomed to the oval ball during his youth as an out-half at Carlow RFC. 

What’s more is Idaho’s newest recruit can kick off both left and right, particularly crucial as a punter, leaving kicks nigh-on impossible to read when his body angles can remain so neutral and unpredictable.

He has also shown that he is well-versed in the mechanics of both placekicking and punting, which can only work in his favor with the Idaho State Bengals, as that skill is a useful commodity in the game.

This contract is a huge deal, for Bolger, for Leader, and for Ireland. This is essentially unheard of, a feasible route into the professional game, always with the back-up of a Grad Programme, or Masters as he would know it in DCU (just without the €10,000 fees!).

How have the last couple of weeks been then? Hectic presumably. He doesn’t strike you as the kind of man to succumb to nerves, but what’s under the surface?

“It’s been mental enough. All good publicity!

“This is the kind of environment and atmosphere I’ve been looking for since I started. I know there’s going to be early mornings, gruelling pre-season, but that’s where I want to be. I want to better myself every day, succeed, and see where I go.

“I get asked if I'm nervous going over, the only Irish lad on a team of Americans, the culture change. Once or twice I thought about it, but I’ve lived in America before. I think I’ll get on grand.”

Bolger’s definition of “grand” is in a different stratosphere than the rest of us, you feel. An Irishman doesn’t get away with an elite sporting mentality. You have to bury it. The soul of Cristiano Ronaldo, with the face of Father Stone. 

If you want to make it, you have to play the game, however. Adapting to American culture brings about undeniable benefits.

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“Every kicker that wants to go to college, they have Twitter set up, their highlights on a link. When Tadhg told me to set myself up on Twitter in September, I wasn’t even on it. 

“I didn’t understand it at the start, I was like, ‘sure what is this going to do for me?’. Next thing, coaches were reaching out in DM’s.

“I started watching the NFL when I was 15, the RedZone every Sunday, then I got into college football. Watching shows like Last Chance U  (on Netflix), and as more shows like that came out, suddenly everyone in my friend group was watching it.

“I love America, I wouldn’t be going if I didn’t.”

The joy of the Leader Kicking programme is the blend of option and opportunity. This isn’t do-or-die. It’s a hell of a chance, yes, something that the Killeshin man is far too wise to give up without a fight. 

But there is no real failure here. How many rungs can you climb up the ladder of success?

“After I graduate, I’m entitled to a one-year visa. If I want to stay out, I’ll extend my visa. Obviously, the chance of becoming a professional is there too, which would be an unbelievable opportunity.

“If all else fails, I could come home after three years, having had an incredible experience. Myself and Tadhg have got on so well I’ve changed my degree to sports management and coaching. 

“We’ve discussed the possibility if I do come back to Ireland of giving him a hand with the coaching (with the Leader Kicking Immersive Programme)”. 

And so the journey begins. In July, Bolger takes the plunge. After Independence Day, he will arrive in what he describes as “the Laois of America”. His education commences in late August, while the first game takes place in September.

The hard slog really begins in about six weeks’ time, 8am to 8pm, team meetings, pitch sessions, running, gym. Here, there is no room for the mercurial free-taker, the fella who’s hamstring remarkably flares up when the hard work commences.

And that suits Ross Bolger just fine.

Life is sweetest with the ball in your hands, and the world at your feet.