| Aoife Kane
It was exciting to watch all the hype over what the NFL claimed to be its first game in my country of Ireland over the weekend, but with all due respect, I played in a Steelers-hosted Irish game more than a decade ago. Two of them, in fact.
When Steelers owner Dan Rooney served as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland during the Obama administration, he’d host an Irish-American Flag Football Classic game every year during his Fourth of July Independence Day party. I remember him roaming the football field in a white Steelers hat, with a Häagen-Dazs ice cream in hand. Luckily enough for us Irish kids, Gaelic football skills are easily transferable to flag football.
Sadly, Rooney passed away in 2017, so he didn’t live to see the Steelers prevail over the Vikings in a 24-21 nail-biter in Dublin’s Croke Park over the weekend. But for more than a decade the Rooney family has been sowing the seeds of their Irish adventure through diplomacy, flag football, and Gatorade.
The Steelers have been reluctant to sign up for too many international games over the years, but there was never any doubt that once the NFL headed for Ireland, the black-and-gold from Pittsburgh would have to be there. Ireland is practically home for an organization whose founding family can trace its roots back to the 1840s in Newry, in Northern Ireland.
Growing up, the annual day out in the Deerfield Residence in Dublin’s Phoenix Park – the official U.S. Ambassador’s home – provided my introduction to American culture, politics, and sports, even if I didn’t realize it back then. I was happy to be playing a cool new sport, completely oblivious to the important diplomacy that was taking place on the sidelines.
Ambassador Rooney would oversee two flag football games each year, one for the kids, including his own grandchildren, and a more competitive one for adults, where top Irish athletes would be invited to try their hand at flag football. Attendees swung around yellow “Terrible Towels” and drank Gatorade and Mountain Dew.
The ambassador's residence was opened to Irish politicians, American expats, Steelers and embassy staff and their families, and one year his star quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger showed up. The grounds of the residence were converted into football fields with goalposts and large bleachers; little American flags were planted in the grass.
The successor to “Big Ben,” Aaron Rodgers (who says his favorite beer is Guinness) walked in the footsteps of many great Irish sporting heroes by leading his team to a win in a sold-out Croke Park in front of 74,512 roaring fans. The NFL estimates there are about 350,000 NFL fans on the island of Ireland. The Steelers had even played a preseason game in Dublin before my time, back in 1997, and Ireland is also attracting college football games these days.
Roethlisberger, back in Ireland for the 2025 Steelers game, said it was “bittersweet” that Ambassador Rooney was not there to see it but that he would be “smiling down on us.” Art Rooney II is continuing to promote the game abroad in the role he inherited from his father.
An NFL game in Dublin marks a new era for the league. To the delight of football fans in Ireland and beyond, the NFL is looking outwards to the rest of the world and inviting everyone in.
For the Steelers, it started a while back in Dublin, with their own special ambassador.