First NFL Regular Season Game in Ireland - Steelers vs Vikings

When it was announced last year that the first ever NFL regular season game was going to be played in Dublin early in the 2025/26 season, I was still very new to American football but even then I could see that the announcement of this fixture was a big deal. With the Steelers and the Packers touted as potential participants, immediate interest was drummed up, and not just in the USA. On Irish social media it seemed everyone and their dog wanted to go this game.

Thus it proved when the final fixture was announced as Steelers vs Vikings and the digital queue for tickets had over half a million people waiting at one point. For my own part, I forgot that this was on and by the time I found out tickets had finally gone on sale, the ticket window had already been open for most of the day. I decided to chance my arm and see if there were any tickets going and indeed there were, so I picked up two as a birthday present for my wife who wanted to go too.

This is far from the first time that American football has made its way over here. Indeed, the gridiron has appeared over here going back to at least the 1940s. There are long ancestral ties between Ireland and the USA that made it not only an exchange of culture but an exchanges based around shared culture too. NFL teams have come over and played preseason games before and in recent years, we've seen more and more regular season college football games over here. With the Steelers and the Vikings coming to town, this would be the biggest occasion yet.

Previous American football games from the recent past have been played in the Aviva Stadium at Lansdowne Road, a leafy area in some of the most affluent environs of the country. This game however was to be held in Croke Park, Ireland's biggest stadium and one of the biggest in Europe, and also the stadium in which the final matches of the Irish sports seasons are played. These would specifically be hurling and Gaelic football (so when I hear the word "football", it could mean one of three different sports). Some American commentators were pleasantly surprised that Croke Park was situated in a residential area, as most European stadia are. There are stadia in America that are like this too but they appear to be in the minority at the moment (though from what I read this is changing and more American stadia are evolving with a community around them).

Croke Park is situated in North Dublin City centre by the vestigially named Royal Canal. It has four stands, each with its own history. On the south is the Davin stand, or canal end, which the Dart train runs by. On the east is the Cusack stand, named after Michael Cusack, founder of the Gaelic Athletic Association that administrates Irish sports. To the West is the Hogan stand, named after Michael Hogan, a Gaelic footballer from Tipperary who was shot and killed on the field by British officers during Bloody Sunday in November 1920. The north end of the stadium is Hill 16, a noticeably smaller section of the stadium without upper tiers and named after the 1916 Rising, an insurrection which eventually led to Irish independence from Britain in the early 1920s.

The stadium itself holds over 80,000 and I was surprised to learn that the first night that Croke Park ever hosted a night time game with flood lights a Gaelic football match between Dublin and Tyrone, it was attended by 81,678 fans, making it the largest attendance for any sporting event in the world that weekend. That weekend was in early February 2007 and also included Superbowl XLI, whose attendance was 74,512, interestingly enough. The pitch is of natural grass and spans a large playing surface. The pitch had to be shrinked noticeably to accommodate American football.

As is the norm over here, we turned up late to the first ever NFL regular season game in Ireland. As is also the norm over here, the delay was completely avoidable and we even got off the train a stop late thinking we were on another line. Thus it is. We missed the nationals anthems (there was a rendition of both the Star Spangled Banner of the USA and Amhrán na bhFiann) and most of the first quarter, including a Vikings field goal. We arrived in time to see the Steelers drive down the field and score their first touchdown. The Steelers were the home side but the stadium looked like an even mix of black-yellow and purple-white. Noentheless, the Steelers fans certainly acted like the home team, with their chants and waving of their terrible towels.

The atmosphere was a level up of intense compared to Farmageddon the previous month. I was supporting the Steelers because we had them on the spread that day. My wife was supporting the Vikings because she likes the colour purple. We noticed that although Farmageddon had a lot of cheerleaders, we didn't see any this time. Maybe it was because of the Vikings having male cheerleaders and they all said what even is the point. I did miss the Steeler's second touchdown at the start of the second quarter because I was off getting a drink. I decided after that I should start getting more drinks, because then the Steelers would be out of sight by half time.

Indeed, the Steelers were well on top for most of the game. We witnessed a blocked field goal (these keep happening) and a Steelers attempt at another touchdown which came to nothing. They were far enough ahead that it seemed they would not come to regret those missed opportunities, but then the Vikings scored a touchdown. This was followed by another touchdown. With time still to play in the 4th quarter, we were well on truly into squeaky bum time. Would the Steelers complete the first NFL bottle job on Irish soil?

The tension in the stadium mounted as the Vikings made one last push to take the game. There was brief celebration amongst the Steelers fans as one of the Steelers intercepted the ball, only for it not to count. The Steelers defence held firm and they won the game 24-21.

The mood was very vibrant as it was on Lansdowne a month ago, but also like last month it wasn't all plain sailing. This time we didn't have a quarterback's father get into a fight with said quarterback's brother, but we did have another quarterback involved in an incident. Although no formal incident was filed to the guards, Irish media reported Steelers quarterback Skylar Thompson was out in Temple Bar on Friday night and he got mugged by a group of males. I'm hesitant to say that Temple Bar is the Dublin equivalent of the French Quarter in New Orleans or vice versa but it is the place that drunk tourists go to pay for overpriced food and drinks. It may not have the same degree of crime that the French Quarter has (nor the same degree of glamour) but it's still a kip. They mug you enough as it is with the price of drinks in there.

Nonetheless, this didn't dampen the mood and Aaron Rodgers said to the media afterwards that he'd like for the NFL to return to Dublin next year. I'll drink to that.