‘They’re freaks of nature’ – Aidan O’Shea on tackling the challenge of American football

Aidan O'Shea looks relaxed for a man heading into the unknown as part of this year's 'The Toughest Trade' TV show.

The Mayo footballer is no American football fanatic, but he still signed up for the new series of the show, which will see the forward swap life as a elite Gaelic footballer for Gridiron, with an as yet unnamed American football team. Last year saw Jackie Tyrrell and Aaron Kernan swap with Brian Schneider and David Bentley to experience life as professionals at the Miami Marlins and Sunderland respectively. This year Brendan Maher will swap life as a hurler with Tipperary for life as a cricketer in Australia, but O'Shea is still in the dark as to his plans for next month. He'll leave 24 hours after Mayo's Allianz league clash with Dublin, and rather than the county management worried about one of their key players being absent for a week, he's been encouraged in his U.S adventure.

"Rochy (Stephen Rochford) works for AIB and I think they came to him and he came to me. It was something he came to me with before Christmas and I said 'yeah', and he said barring injury, he had no problem with it."

O'Shea took in an NFL game before Christmas, when he saw the Jets play the Giants on an end of season break with friends. The 25-year-old knows he faces a huge physical challenge against professional athletes.

"I'm going with an open mind, I don't even know what I'm going to be doing but there is definitely something I'll be able to pick out of it. These guys are freaks of nature so I'll see how I get on. "I'm going to be small, basically, to be honest about it, I expect to be anyway. Looking at some of the weights and my size, I'm 6'4", some of them could have 20kgs on me, which is just insane as I'm just around the 100kg mark."

By his own admission he was a decent underage basketball player, but is thankful that this year's program is focused on gridiron, and not hardwood, or especially MMA.

"When I was younger I was decent at basketball but I'd embarrass myself if I went over trying to shoot a basketball with some NBA stars," he said, before ruling out martial arts. "I wouldn't like my face to be absolutely destroyed. I watched the warm-up fight to Conor McGregor at UFC 189, Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman, and he (Rockhold) was destroying some lad's face for 30 seconds and the referee just stood there and looked at blood pouring everywhere. And I don't think I want to do that."

Last season's show highlighted once again how sports people from other codes find it hard to understand how GAA players are not paid for their efforts. The All-Star, who has previously predicted the formation of franchises in the GAA, feels that someday the GAA may become totally professional. But not yet, according to O'Shea, who works as a planning coordinator with pharmaceutical firm Allergan.

"Not in my time but you never know where Gaelic football might go in time. It will take a huge change in lots and lots of ways for it to happen, maybe 20 years, we might not be here, but I think it might happen down the road."

For now O'Shea will have to be satisfied with a little American razzmatazz.  

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