Steelers predicting trip to Ireland won't be last for franchise as NFL expands global footprint

After years of planning and a weeklong celebration of football, the Rooney family and the Pittsburgh Steelers will conclude Sunday in Dublin’s Croke Park when the NFL’s first international game in Ireland kicks off.

The focus will shift to the play on the field as the Steelers, as the designated home team, face the Minnesota Vikings. For three hours, the emphasis will be on blocking and tackling, passing and running.

Then what?

After going 12 years in between trips across the Atlantic Ocean, it’s safe bet the wait won’t be nearly as long for the Steelers to play their next international game. And there is a good chance at some point the Steelers will be back on the Emerald Island.

“The Steelers aren’t going anywhere after this game,” Dan Rooney, the team’s vice president of business development and strategy, said at a media event this weekend in Ireland. “We think it’s a launching pad to a bright future.”

Emphasizing that his ancestors emigrated from Ireland in the 1840s and keep finding a way to return for business and pleasure, Rooney made another not-so-bold prediction.

“I’d be surprised if we didn’t come back,” he said.

With the number of international games increasing yearly — seven will be held outside the United States this year — it’s not a question of if but when the Steelers will get picked again. The NFL has played 56 regular-season games outside the U.S., but this is just the Steelers’ second trip abroad, the other taking place in 2013 when they also faced the Minnesota Vikings. That game was played in London.

The NFL will play a game next season in Australia and will play in Rio de Janeiro in 2026 after having games held in Sao Paolo in the 2024-25 seasons.

Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president of club business, called the 2025 slate of international games “history-making” and “record-breaking.”

“It’s all about connecting with fans, fueling fandom and interest in our game globally,” O’Reilly said.

Although the NFL has granted six franchises the global marketing rights to Ireland, the Steelers were the logical choice to break in Ireland as an international market given ownership’s tie to the country. Late chairman Dan Rooney, grandfather of the current Steelers exec who bears his name, was the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland from 2009-12.

The groundwork for the Steelers playing at Croke Park was laid in 2003 when the franchise was awarded the marketing rights to Ireland.

“For this year, it was very clear that the demand to see the Steelers in this market would be a great, great way to kind of kick this off,” said Gerrit Meier, the NFL’s vice president of international events.

Steelers players arrived Friday and conducted one day of practice in Dublin in preparation for the game. Many other team officials, however, arrived earlier in the week. Team president Art Rooney and son Dan were on the ground early in the week attending various community events and not just in Ireland. They also ventured to Northern Ireland for a youth clinic on flag football.

The Steelers also enlisted some of their most famous alumni to help sell the brand to the Irish fans on an appropriately named Terrible Towel Tour. Those taking part in the meet-and-greets and clinics included Ben Roethlisberger, Jerome Bettis, Ike Taylor, Maurkice Pouncey and Max Starks.

“The Steelers mission with American football on the island of Ireland has always been about the entire island, so it was really important for us to travel to Northern Ireland, to Belfast, to hold this youth football camp,” Dan Rooney said. “We’re most comfortable on a football field, so being able to teach the game we love to the youth of the island is important.”

The NFL did its part to promote the game by scheduling a three-day fan fest in Dublin, which officials likened to a mini-Super Bowl experience. It also opened an official pro shop in the city.

The off-field events concluded Saturday with the Steelers meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Edward Walsh at his residence. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also attended, and Art Rooney II presented Walsh with an official Steelers jersey.

The elder Rooney noted the differences between what Steelers representatives witnessed this week compared to 1997 when the Steelers played a preseason game at Croke Park against the Chicago Bears.

“I would say the Irish people only had a vague awareness of what American football was then,” Rooney II said. “They really didn’t understand it very well. Of course, they have great sports of their own. Hurling and Gaelic football are the big sports. So it was hard for American football to kind of edge some of those other sports out of the headlines.”

Croke Park has held watch parties for select games since 2023 when the push to play a game in Dublin began. Dan Rooney said the parties consistently sell out.

“The Steelers had a dream to play in Ireland,” he said. “The league recognized the growth and the fan base that is here.”

Dan Rooney couldn’t help but think about his grandfather while laying the groundwork for the Steelers’ trip to Dublin. The former ambassador passed away in 2017. His oldest son and grandson picked up the proverbial torch after his passing.

“My dad has a vision to push into the Irish market in a big way,” Dan Rooney said. “I know my grandfather would be proud of this.”

Meier said when the NFL began selling tickets for the game Sunday, more than 600,000 digital devices were linked to the queue to purchase them. That interest alone could entice the NFL to bring the Steelers back to Ireland. The league, though, has other teams interested in exploring the market. Along with the Steelers, the Green Bay Packers, New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs have marketing rights to the island.

The Steelers also have global marketing agreements in Germany and Mexico, which makes those countries in play for a future game. Until Ireland became part of the Steelers’ marketing arm, Mexico appeared as a likely destination for the organization. The Steelers have a large fan base south of the border as well.

“In the end, it’s about growing the game at every level,” Meier said. “The interest from clubs to play internationally keeps growing. It’s interesting to see the momentum growing, too. We will keep monitoring that interest, but it has been increasing for all of these locations.”