{"id":177182,"date":"2025-09-29T07:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T07:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/177182\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T07:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T07:41:07","slug":"nfl-dublin-pittsburgh-steelers-quarterback-aaron-rodgers-100-believes-nfl-should-return-to-croke-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/177182\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Dublin: Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers ‘100%’ believes NFL should return to Croke Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

No sooner had the NFL circus packed up its tent and rolled out of town on Sunday than thoughts turned to whether the sporting spectacle would be returning to Dublin.<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Steelers held off a fourth-quarter comeback attempt from the Minnesota Vikings to secure a 24-21 victory in the first regular-season game held in Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Had Kevin O’Connell’s men come from 24-6 behind with 11 minutes and 21 seconds remaining, it would have been a turnaround no Vikings fan would have forgotten in a hurry. <\/p>\n

But, even before they were turned over on downs to end the game, it already felt an occasion to remember for the 74,512 in attendance.<\/p>\n

For the Steelers organisation, the game was the fulfilment<\/a> of a long-held dream.<\/p>\n

Returning to Croke Park 28 years after they defeated the Chicago Bears in a pre-season fixture, a repeated theme through the week was what it all would have meant to the side’s late owner Dan M Rooney, whose ancestors hailed from Newry in County Down.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether Sunday’s fixture was a fitting way to honour one of the NFL’s first families, or the start of a regular spot in the International Series rotation.<\/p>\n

Dublin was the fourth European city to stage such a fixture following on from London, Munich and Frankfurt. Berlin and Madrid will join that list next month.<\/p>\n

Games have also been taken to Brazil and Mexico with another set for Australia next year. Asia could be next. <\/p>\n

What was once America’s game is now clearly global in scope but, with such competition to play hosts, can the Emerald Isle expect a swift return?<\/p>\n

There is certainly one prominent supporter in their corner.<\/p>\n

“100%,” said the Steelers four-time Most Valuable Players quarterback Aaron Rodgers when asked by BBC Sport NI if Dublin deserved more games in the future.<\/p>\n

“The whole experience was fantastic. Shout-out to the country and everybody who made this happen. Win or lose, I would have said the same thing. <\/p>\n

“I just felt like the reception from the people here was outstanding.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No sooner had the NFL circus packed up its tent and rolled out of town on Sunday than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-177182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}