EAST RUTHERFORD — The lad from Ireland feels right at home in North Jersey.
That was a major benefit of spending the past two years at Rutgers for Jude McAtamney, who signed with the Giants in April and has developed his craft in training camp this summer.
“I’ve loved it here so far,” the 24-year-old McAtamney said. “I feel like since I’ve gotten here until now, I’ve gotten much better as well. They’re pushing me to be better.”
Born in a small village of Northern Ireland called Swatragh, McAtamney grew up playing Gaelic football, which could be described as a crossover between rugby and soccer.
It’s also the only sport in the world besides American football where the ball is placed on grass and kicked straight up between two upright posts. So it seems only natural that Irish kids would be talented enough to become American placekickers.
Yet it wasn’t until David Shanahan in May of 2020 that an Irishman received a full scholarship to play college football. Shanahan, who attended Georgia Tech, referred McAtamney to ProKick Australia after McAtamney became inspired to follow Shanahan’s path. McAtamney couldn’t travel to Melbourne because of COVID-19 restrictions but trained with the program in Serbia and then the United States.
McAtamney ultimately landed a scholarship from Chowan University, a Division II school in North Carolina, where he played in 2021 before becoming good enough to transfer to Rutgers.
“The kicking aspect is natural for me,” McAtamney said. “Probably the biggest adjustment was just the cultural change from Ireland to America, but I feel like I’ve adjusted now. The guys on the team are great, so that aspect, it was challenging in college I feel, but at the professional level, these guys have welcomed here, so I feel very comfortable here.”
On a technical level, McAtamney says it’s harder to kick a good ball because the sweet spot on an American football is smaller than on a Gaelic football. But after practicing for a few years with subtle tweaks to his routine, he’s reached a point where he can kick without thinking.
“The biggest thing for me is just following through to my target,” McAtamney said. “I just need to emphasize that every day I go out there. I feel my swing is good enough, it’s just about critiquing a couple things and just being intentional with those pointers (from coaches).”
Last season, Packers punter Daniel Whelan became the first Irish-born athlete to play in an NFL regular season game since Neil O’Donoghue retired in 1985. There’s been an Irish movement ever since. The NFL’s International Pathway Program, which began in 2017, included kickers and punters this year for the first time including four from Ireland.
“The opportunity to live in the college lifestyle or the professional lifestyle, to make it professional would be a dream come true for a lot of guys because we were taught when we were young how to kick,” said McAtamney, who added with a laugh, “I can’t throw the ball very well, but kicking is just a natural thing. So I think a lot of guys see that they can do it, it’s just a matter of getting out here and proving to everyone that you can.”
McAtamney wasn’t part of the pathway program because of his opportunity to play American football in college. McAtamney converted 12-of-18 field goals and 23-of-24 extra points at Rutgers in 2022 before setting a school record with 40 touchbacks on 60 kickoffs as the kickoff specialist in 2023.
He kicked at Rutgers Pro Day in March and performed well under pressure to get invited by a Giants scout to a tryout in East Rutherford, where he went 10-for-10 on live kicks.
“I thought he kicked the ball really well, had good leg strength and good accuracy,” Giants head coach Brian Daboll said of McAtamney’s performance that day.
McAtamney also did a local workout with the Jets, and after waiting a few weeks feeling uncertain about his future, he finally got a call from the Giants on the night after the NFL Draft. He was happy to sign a contract as the backup kicker to Graham Gano.
Gano, punter Jamie Gillan and long snapper Casey Kreiter welcomed him to the team “just like an older player,” McAtamney said. Gano and Gillan are Scottish, so McAtamney has been able to relate more to those teammates off the field as well.
McAtamney saw his first game action Aug. 8 against the Detroit Lions at MetLife Stadium in the Giants’ preseason opener. Carrying few nerves because of how relaxed the other Giants specialists were, he converted one extra point and had a 64-yard kickoff in the second quarter and a 61-yard kickoff in the third quarter.
He woke up the next morning to congratulatory texts from friends and family back home.
“The popularity with this sport has grown in Ireland,” McAtamney said. “The support from them has been great.”
The 6-foot-2, 205-pounder is an interesting project for the Giants for two reasons.
NFL practice squads can now include up to 17 players if one spot is used on an international player. Teams don’t normally carry more than one kicker on their active roster, so it would make sense for the Giants to retain him if he clears waivers after the preseason.
Moreover, the NFL’s new kickoff rules favor directional kicking away from returners in the “landing zone” (between the end zone and the 20-yard line), which McAtamney is used to doing as a free taker in Gaelic football.
“He’s improving on his kickoffs with the new kickoff deal. But he’s learning a lot, I’d say, from Graham,” Daboll said. “Graham and I have talked about him a bunch. Graham’s done a good job with leading him and helping him through some of the things that having not played a ton, I think it’s important to have a good mentor there. So he’s done a good job for us. Glad he’s here and look forward to keep working with him.”
With one week until teams trim their rosters from 90 to 53 players, McAtamney is focused on the process of getting better each day in the sport that he’s already grown so much in only a few years.
“It’s great to be around those guys, so if they put me on the practice squad here, I definitely would take that,” McAtamney said. “Obviously I want to play, I feel like I’m good enough to play, but as an alternative I would definitely be happy to be here.”
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