It turns out the Pittsburgh Steelers weren’t at the behest of the NFL when it came to their London travel schedule. Despite a report earlier in the week that the Steelers intended to travel to Ireland earlier in the week, NFL senior VP of football and international communications Michael Signora denied that was the case. Speaking to the media on Friday, Steelers’ owner Art Rooney II confirmed as much, saying that the Steelers talked to the NFL but the decision to travel on Thursday was a “football decision.”
ESPN’s Brooke Pryor passed along Rooney’s comments on Twitter.
While the Steelers did consult the league, it doesn’t sound as if the league was preventing the Steelers from traveling earlier in the week. It’s interesting that Rooney considers leaving on Thursday to be a “football decision” after players, including Cam Heyward, talked about how miserable it was with the team leaving late for their last overseas trip to London in 2013.
Aaron Rodgers also said today he wished the team left on Monday to get better acclimated to the time change and to have more time to settle in. With the Steelers leaving for Ireland last night, arriving this morning and practicing today and having a walkthrough tomorrow with the game Sunday, there isn’t going to be a lot of time for players to rest. If it’s anything like the team’s last international trip, it could lead to a sloppy performance on the field.
The NFL likely had a suggestion for when the team should leave, hence it being a “joint” decision, and the Steelers were able to practice in their home facility on Wednesday and Thursday. But it probably would’ve made more sense, given what players have and are saying, if the team decided to come over earlier in the week.
The good news for the Steelers is that the Vikings didn’t arrive in Dublin any earlier. They won’t have the advantage of a few extra days of rest and acclimating to the time change and a new area like they did when Minnesota arrived early for the 2013 London game. It’s still a decision that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense from the Steelers’ side.
At least the Steelers will have nice accommodations for the limited time they’re in Dublin, renting out a five-star resort with multiple practice fields on-site. It should reduce some of the travel the team has to do while they’re in Ireland, and it may ever so slightly make up for the decision to arrive late in the week.
