The Pittsburgh Steelers have a well-documented history and ties to Ireland, thanks to the Rooney family. They can trace their roots back as the family emigrated from the Emerald Isle back in the 1800s. Those ties deepened thanks to the late chairman of the Steelers, Dan Rooney, as he served as the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.
When the Steelers play the Cleveland Browns on Nov. 19, the relationship between the Steelers and their owners’ homeland will add another milestone. The team’s website announced Tuesday that Super Bowl champion and Hall of Fame G Alan Faneca will be a part of the first official Ireland Watch Party.
“I think it’s exciting,” Faneca said. “Branching out and expanding into a new market that I would imagine with Ambassador Rooney being over there, there is some attachment already to the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, it’s exciting to be a part of a group that’s going to go over there and try and expand it even more… Anything to be a part of Mr. Rooney’s dreams and visions, and to be a part of helping that means the world to me and to the rest of the Steelers family as well. It’s exciting to go over there and be a part of it.”
Faneca had a decorated 13-year NFL career, and he spent 10 of those seasons in Pittsburgh. He played in 158 regular-season games with the Steelers and was named first-team All-Pro in six of those seasons along with one second-team nod. He also made seven straight Pro Bowls in Pittsburgh (he added an eighth-straight Pro Bowl in 2008 with the New York Jets as well as his second second-team All-Pro nod.) He played in 11 playoff games with Pittsburgh and was a member of the team that won Super Bowl XL.
Faneca was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a member of the 2021 class. In all, Faneca played 206 regular-season games and started 201 of those while playing in 14 postseason games, all of them starts. He also recovered 11 career fumbles, eight of them as a member of the Steelers.
Just as Faneca helped pave the way for Pittsburgh during his 10 seasons with the team, it seems fitting that he would be asked to help pave the way for an even deeper connection between the Steelers and the land that gave the team its owners.
