An Irish Gaelic football star is being praised for making a progressive statement during a St. Patrick's Day match.

As the BBC originally reported, Ger Brennan thanked the "girlfriends and boyfriends of the players" after Dublin's St Vincent's March 16 victory Castlebar Mitchels in the All-Ireland Club Championship.

"To the family, girlfriends, boyfriends of the players and everyone involved, there's a lot of work that goes into playing for your club team and the county, and there's always an awful lot of support behind us," he said in the speech, footage of which can be found above. "People don't often see that, so I'd like to give thanks to all the families and friends."

To be fair, it's just a passing reference, but in the world of sports, anti-gay sentiment remains strong. German soccer club Bayern Munich is currently facing fine of about $83,000 for an anti-gay sign unfurled during a match against Arsenal earlier this month.

No word on whether Brennan's remark was somehow timed to coincide with St. Patrick's Day. This year in particular, U.S. celebrations of the Irish holiday in New York and Boston faced a barrage of criticism for their anti-gay sentiment.

CORRECTION: The original version of this story referred to Brennan as a soccer star. He's actually a Gaelic Irish footballer.