The Pittsburgh Steelers will make history later this year when they host the NFL’s first regular season game in Ireland. The only people more excited than the Rooney family might be the ones currently playing football in the country. Founder of Pro Football Ireland Michael McQuaid joined the Pat McAfee Show Friday to discuss the news and his high expectations for the week’s festivities.
“It’s important to say it, you’ve got 32 teams in the league. Thirty-one other teams don’t have the links to the island or links to a country like the Rooney family have,” McQuaid said. “So for Dan, the entire Rooney family and the history that they’ve had, this is such an emotional but an important day for them.
“And I just can’t wait to see the standard that they’re gonna bring it to,” McQuaid added. “Because I know already some of the things that they have in play, that they have planned in store. It’s just gonna be epic, guys. It’s gonna be unbelievable.”
While the focus will be on the game, rumored but not confirmed to be against the Green Bay Packers, the NFL’s international games are more than just one kickoff. Especially for first-time events like holding a game in Ireland. There will be several interactive events in the days leading up to the game as Pittsburgh serves as de facto ambassador of the week.
It’s a role the Rooney family is clearly embracing given the full-court press they made to host the game, led by Dan Rooney, Art Rooney II’s son, and likely successor to Art as Steelers’ owner and president. Even if there’s no timeline for that to occur.
McQuaid believes the 82,000 fans who pack Croke Park will fall in love with the game if they haven’t already. And the Irish people share in Pittsburgh’s mentality.
“They go to work on the Monday morning,” he said. “We love sport. We love the passion of it. And yes, I think more and more people are being connected to it.”
It will be a milestone moment for the NFL and for Pittsburgh. The only thing that’ll make it better is reversing fortune of the Steelers’ last international game, an ugly 2013 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in London.
