Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin revealed during his Tuesday press conference that there’s more information out there about preparing for international travel than there was in 2013 when the team traveled to London, and doesn’t expect it to be an issue this time around.
The Steelers are leaving for Dublin after Thursday’s practice.
“It’s been a long time for me individually. … There’s been a lot of organizations since then that have traveled (internationally). Procedurally, it’s less mystical I think. Procedure is more global. There’s more shared information about how to best pull off these trips,” Tomlin said. “We have that information, the Vikings have that information. I think it’s a less of a discussion topic in today’s game than it was in (2013) when we went to London.”
The Steelers have a detailed planned for their trip to Ireland.
“We are doing some things to acclimate ourselves to the trip. We are working early this week to start the body clock transition process,” Tomlin said. “We certainly have some best practices in term of acclimating ourselves once we begin the journey at the latter part of the week. But nothing unique there, a lot of organizations have been traveling internationally now for a number of years, so some of those procedural things that put you in position to best perform are less mystical and really more best practices. The hydration factor, the sleep factor and all of those things. We had a good admin meeting (on Monday) regarding some of that stuff so that we can get singularly focused on the football work, the prep work that’s going to be required to position ourselves to play winning football.”
During an episode of his Not Just Football podcast in May, Steelers All-Pro defensive tackle Cam Heyward provided insight on the Steelers last trip overseas, and to say the least, things did not go well. The Steelers lost to the Vikings, 34-27, dropping to 0-4 on the season.
According to Heyward, the Steelers made a mistake by traveling to London later in the week. The Steelers were lethargic due to the time difference. Former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger also had similar comments.
“We left Thursday night and arrived Friday morning,” Heyward said on his *Not Just Football *podcast. “Everybody was asleep during practice. Everybody was falling asleep during the stretch. Then we had meetings after, everybody fell asleep there. Then, during the game, everybody was asleep in the first half. It’s rough because you’re going, what? It’ll be five hours ahead? So you’re trying to get sleep on a plane going over there. It’s not ideal.”
Tomlin is not worried about potential distractions associated with playing in Ireland.
“I don’t view it as a balance. This is a business trip,” Tomlin said.
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