{"id":170145,"date":"2025-09-26T10:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/170145\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T10:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:16:07","slug":"nfl-dublin-pittsburgh-steelers-set-to-face-minnesota-vikings-in-historic-rooney-homecoming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/170145\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Dublin: Pittsburgh Steelers set to face Minnesota Vikings in historic Rooney homecoming"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Steelers organisation is very much a family business for the Rooneys. Five members of the family still work in the front office, including Art II’s eldest son Dan.<\/p>\n

He is currently director of business development and strategy and this week was part of a Steelers contingent that visited Newry, an hour’s drive from Dublin, just across the border in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

“[While I was] growing up, my grandfather and father always talked about their love for Ireland, so this is a dream come true for the Rooney family,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n

“Making sure we engage with the island and its people is something my grandfather cared deeply about, and we’re doing that in a big way this week.”<\/p>\n

While back in his ancestors’ hometown, Rooney announced two scholarships for local pupils via the Ireland Funds, along with grants for their schools.<\/p>\n

The team also held a flag football event in Belfast, one of many community events they have organised across the island of Ireland before Dublin becomes the sixth international city to host a regular-season NFL game.<\/p>\n

Almost one in 10 Americans have Irish heritage – including NFL executive Peter O’Reilly and Pittsburgh’s new quarterback Aaron Rodgers<\/a> – which is partly why more than 30,000 international visitors are expected this weekend.<\/p>\n

“There’s not another international game where that connection between the team, the owners and the country is this deep,” said O’Reilly.<\/p>\n

“Seeing NFL fans in Dublin and such an iconic stadium being transformed, it’s really special.”<\/p>\n

Rodgers, a four-time MVP, added: “This game means a lot to all of us so we want to represent the team and the Rooney legacy well.<\/p>\n

“Being a part of the first game in Ireland is pretty cool. I have Irish heritage, so I’m very excited to get out there.”<\/p>\n

While Rodgers is new to the organisation, head coach Mike Tomlin has been the Steelers’ head coach since 2007 and remembers their former president fondly.<\/p>\n

“I think a lot about the late Ambassador Rooney and how fired up he would be about this trip, and how important the development of this trip was for him,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Man, you talk about a guy who certainly had a lot of passion for Ireland, and obviously for the Steelers, and then serving as Ambassador. I’m sure he’s going to be smiling down at us this weekend.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Steelers organisation is very much a family business for the Rooneys. Five members of the family still…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-170145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}