Furlong’s Falcons heartbreak shows how cruel sport can be

Over the weekend, multiple hearts were broken across the NFL, as fringe players were told they wouldn’t be making their respective teams’ final 53-man squads.

It’s a massive relief for the rest of us that the season finally kicks off tomorrow night. The Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks, will host the Green Bay Packers ahead of the rest of the teams taking to fields across the US on Sunday. But for the guys discarded into reserve squads or — worse — Canada, it’s a torturous week, left out in the cold as the frenzy builds and builds.

It was timely then that GAA scribe Pat Nolan had an edited extract of his new book about the Furlong brothers in one of the Sunday papers over the weekend.