Steelers Heading International: NFL Sends Top Executives To Scout Ireland For Steelers

The Pittsburgh Steelers have played all of their games on United States soil since 2013 when they played a game in London against the Minnesota Vikings. There have been rumors that the Steelers may play a game in Mexico City in 2025 due to the organization having a strong fan base in Mexico and the Steelers being seemingly overdue for an international game. The NFL has a policy that a team must give up a home game once in an eight-year span for an international game. While Mexico City may be an option for Pittsburgh's next international game, Ireland is on the table as well.

A regular season game has never taken place in Ireland. International games have been played in England, Mexico, and Germany. This season, Brazil will be added to that list as the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles face off in a big Week 1 matchup in São Paulo, Brazil. That game will be the first NFL game played in South America. As the NFL tries to grow the game overseas through the NFL International Series, the league has been doing their due diligence to determine if certain countries would be a good fit to host a regular season game.

According to the Irish Star, the NFL has sent representatives to Ireland to look for potential venues, and the Steelers are expected to be a part of that game.

"The NFL has reportedly sent its top dogs to Dublin to scope out the possibility of hosting games there."

It sounds like the NFL has already determined that Ireland is a good fit for an NFL international game and Dublin would be the ideal location for the contest.

"The Pittsburgh Steelers are lined up to play in Dublin. The Steelers brought the NFL to Ireland with the island's first ever watch party last year and have held many successful youth camps in Cork, Belfast, and Dublin since."

The Steelers feel like an obvious choice to play in Ireland's first ever NFL regular season game. The team played a preseason game in Ireland back in 1997. Pittsburgh owns the marketing rights to Ireland and has hosted camps around the country in an effort to grow the game and promote the Irish to support the Steelers. 

The Steelers Have Deep Roots In Ireland

Most of Pittsburgh's ties to Ireland can be credited to the Rooney family and specifically, the late Dan Rooney. Rooney is the son of Art Rooney, who purchased what is now the Pittsburgh Steelers for $2,500 in 1933. The Rooney family's ancestors emigrated from Ireland during the great famine in the 1840's and eventually landed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While being the active owner of the Steelers, (Dan) Rooney served as the United States Ambassador to Ireland from 2009 to 2012. Rooney's time as the ambassador to Ireland is a huge reason why the Steelers earned the marketing rights there.

It's hard to say when the Steelers will be playing a game in Ireland, but it sounds like it's definitely in the works. Croke Park, home of the Gaelic Athletic Association holds 82,300 fans and could be in the mix for a potential NFL game venue. It's worth noting that there have been multiple college football games played in Ireland. Recently, Georgia Tech beat Florida State at Dublin's Aviva Stadium which seats over 48,000 fans. Aviva could be a potential venue, but the NFL might want to make the most of this opportunity and go for a bigger showcase.

The Steelers' preseason games were all aired in Ireland by Virgin Media. If the Steelers can continue to get their games aired in Ireland and keep doing camps to keep their name fresh in Ireland, the team might have another game on the road that feels like a home game.

Would you like to see the Steelers play a game in Ireland? Let us know in the comments below!

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