The NFL announced earlier in the offseason that the first-ever game in Brazil would be played in Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season and that the Philadelphia Eagles would be hosting it. The Steelers were one of the possible opponents, having a road game against the Eagles this season, and when you narrowed the list down to teams that didn’t already have an international game scheduled, it seemed possible that the Steelers could be the team.
Art Rooney II spoke to the media at the NFL owners meeting in Orlando on Tuesday and seems to think the Steelers will not travel outside of the United States in 2024, per The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo on X.
“Art Rooney said the Steelers don’t expect to have an international game this season,” DeFabo wrote.
The Steelers haven’t had an international game since 2013 when they traveled to London to play against the Minnesota Vikings. Rooney said in one of his end-of-season media sessions that all teams will be playing internationally at least once over the next few years as a part of the NFL’s expanded global markets program.
As a part of that program, the Steelers have rights to market in Mexico, The Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and, as of earlier this week, Germany. More than likely, the next international game that the Steelers play will be in one of those countries.
In more comments shared by Steelers.com’s Dale Lolley, Rooney said he’d love to play international games in Ireland, Mexico, and Germany, though he realized that won’t happen immediately.
“We’d love to play a game in all of those places, but I’m not sure how quickly that can happen,” he told Lolley.
Recently, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Steelers insider Gerry Dulac said in one of his chats that a game in Mexico could be coming in 2025. Rooney also said that the team is pushing to get a game in Ireland sometime in the next few years. Adding Germany to the franchise’s list of markets could also mean a game there with Frankfurt and Munich hosting games in each of the last two seasons.
For further context from Rooney’s comments at the owners meeting, Mark Kaboly posted more on X.
“Art Rooney said that Steelers haven’t been informed if they will play in Brazil Week 1. He seems to believe that means they are out of the conversation,” Kaboly wrote.
So Rooney doesn’t seem to be fully aware if the Steelers have an international game in 2024, but he is taking that to mean that they won’t. With the Steelers having international markets of their own and plans to play in those markets in the coming years, a trip to Brazil didn’t make a whole lot of sense to begin with.
