Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers are expected to host a game in Ireland during the 2025 season, and while the NFL has not officially announced that will take place, they have announced some other international hosts that have narrowed down the Steelers potential opponents for their Dublin game this fall.
The Steelers are expected to be the host team in Ireland, giving up a home game, as they are required to do by NFL rule at least once every eight years. The Steelers have never hosted an international game. They played as the visiting team against the Minnesota Vikings in London in 2013.
The NFL announced last week that the Indianapolis Colts will be hosting the first-ever NFL regular season game in Berlin, Germany this season and Miami Dolphins will be the home team for the first game played in Madrid, Spain. So that likely crosses out the Colts and Dolphins. The league does not make teams play multiple international games in the same season if they don’t want to.
Divisional games have not been part of the international series, as the NFL and teams want to maintain the competitive balance of the home-and-home series, so the Steelers likely won’t be playing the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals or Cleveland Browns in Ireland.
The Steelers other home opponents in the 2025 season will be the Buffalo Bills, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks.
Adam Schefter of ESPN thinks it’s totally plausible that the Steelers will face the Packers in the NFL’s Ireland game in 2025.
“We’ve heard that that it’ll be Steelers and Packers, which I totally believe,” Schefter said on the Pat McAfee Show. “That’s totally plausible. I’m not sure the exact year.”
The Rooneys have been pushing for a game in Ireland for years, and it appears it will come to fruition in 2025.
The Steelers continue to expand their coverage in The Emerald Isle, which is the ancestral home of the Rooneys. Pittsburgh also has international marketing rights in Mexico and Germany.
Rooney stated at the NFL Owner’s Meetings in March that the Steelers would push for a game in Ireland. One of the cities being explored is Dublin. The last time the Steelers played in Ireland was in 1997 for a preseason game against the Chicago Bears. The Steelers have never played a regular-season game in Ireland.
“We’re hoping that sometime soon we’ll be playing another game in Ireland. We played back in the ’90s, it was a preseason game. We expect next time we play a game in Ireland it will probably be a regular-season game. And who knows, it could be one of these years coming up soon.”
The two stadiums the NFL plans to study are Croke Park and Aviva Stadium. Aviva Stadium has hosted numerous college football games, while Croke Park hosted that meeting between the Steelers and Bears. The Steelers want to be that team to play in Ireland, and it could happen as early as next year with Pittsburgh having nine...
