As the NFL’s international expansion continues into the UK and Europe, one team is eying the Republic of Ireland. To no surprise, that team is the Pittsburgh Steelers. Owned by the Rooney family, whose roots trace back to the country in the 19th century, the Steelers are eying a potential game overseas in Ireland.
Owner Daniel Rooney spoke to reporters as he and the team visited Ireland this week. The Associated Press wrote that the team has “long-term plans to play a regular-season NFL game in Ireland.”
“Our aspirations long term are to play a game in Ireland,” Rooney said via NFL.com.
The league has never played a regular-season game in Ireland. Back in 1997, the Steelers and the Chicago Bears played in a pre-season game, but that is the only history the NFL has there. In recent years, college football games have been played there, so they got there first. The NFL has recently made in-roads into playing in not only London but the country of Germany as well. Germany is set to host another NFL game after they held one a season ago.
Croke Park in Dublin is likely to be the host of any NFL game. The famed stadium held that pre-season game between the Steelers and the Bears in 1997. Interestingly enough, Rooney’s comments this week come after the stadium’s Twitter account made a now more interesting post earlier this week.
🏈 🔜 pic.twitter.com/Eig1YdkMmo
— Croke Park (@CrokePark) May 24, 2023
Granted, we’re not sure if Croke Park meant that was because the Steelers were visiting or if they’re teasing a future game. But the events here raise some questions, good ones, of course.
