It's turning out to be quite the weekend for American football fans in Ireland.
As if planning to consume their body weight in chicken wings, watch the Chiefs try to seal the first Super Bowl three-in-a-row (three-peat is banned) on Sunday night, then develop a mystery 24-hour bug the next morning wasn’t enough, Friday also brought the news that Dublin will host its first regular-season NFL game at Croke Park in September.
It’s a particularly welcome announcement if you cheer for six-time champions the Pittsburgh Steelers, who will face as yet unnamed opposition at the home of the GAA.
Why the Steelers? Well, Páirc Esler isn’t quite big enough but the family who own the team came from Down originally. The late Dan M Rooney was also Barack Obama’s ambassador to Ireland and a co-founder of the Ireland Funds philanthropic organisation. Pittsburgh might not hold as much appeal to modern Irish emigrants as New York, Boston or its Pennsylvanian rival Philadelphia but around 16% of the city’s residents also claim ancestry from the Emerald Isle. That’ll do.
The Steelers have been hosting 'watch parties’ in Dublin with former players over the last couple of years to build the brand. Interestingly, the New York Jets and Jacksonville Jaguars also have marketing rights in Ireland – but the much-maligned Jags, whose owner Shahid Khan also owns Fulham FC – play in London almost every year already and the Jets will appear at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2025.
The NFL were keen to emphasise today that they are coming to Dublin "in partnership" with the Irish government. What does partnership mean? €10 million in public money, more or less, to cover what the Government called "a range of costs, including the license fee, security, transport,
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