If you think American college football is for tough guys, wait till the NFL hits town next month for their first ever American Bowl game in Dublin. The National Football League hosted a reception in Captain America's Cookhouse last Tuesday, and when they announced that the Chicago Bears and the Pittsburgh Steelers will lock horns in Croke Park tomorrow week, they might as well have been issuing an earthquake warning.

Dick Regan, the managing director of the NFL, presided over a feast of burgers and beer. Cindy Villarreal-Hughes, a former Miss Texas who will lead 24 pom-pom waving cheerleaders at the game, sat with Dublin boy-band OTT, and later described them as "very nice, very polite and quite goodlooking".