Ireland’s time has come. And history beckons for an ascending powerhouse of American football’s globe-trotting chapter. 

They support in unwavering numbers, they amplify at bar-raising levels, they romanticise their sporting legacy, they immerse themselves in football, they unite to champion their stage like few others, they welcome the world, and they kick; boy, can they kick. Ireland has become a rousing cocktail for the sport’s international growth and one of football’s most multi-faceted homes from home.

Dublin’s iconic 82,000 capacity Croke Park opens its doors to the NFL on Sunday when the Pittsburgh Steelers face the Minnesota Vikings in the first-ever regular season game to be played in Ireland, live on Sky Sports. For so long there had been a dormant giant inevitability to the Emerald Isle’s credentials as a host; at long last, it is happening, and it is here.

Croke Park is the long-established home of Irish sports and prides itself on tradition as the home of the GAA since 1891. Once upon a time the prospect of hosting non-GAA events there was a divisive subject; the honour of gracing its prestigious turf must and will not be lost on the NFL this weekend.

“Whenever we play Gaelic football growing up we dream of playing at Croke Park, it’s so historic, for any young GAA athlete the only thing they want to do or accomplish in their career is go and win on the big days at Croke Park,” Irish New Orleans Saints kicker Charlie Smyth, a former Gaelic football goalkeeper, told Sky Sports.

“I was no different, I just took a detour. There’s no better spot, it’s just unreal.”

Football is deep-rooted in Irish history. Joseph Carr, NFL president from 1921 to 1939 and pivotal to the league’s early growth, was the son of a shoemaker named Michael Karr, who was born in Ireland in 1841 before emigrating to the US two decades later.

The league’s greatest-ever player and seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady previously labelled himself as 50 per cent Irish by way of his father Thomas Brady Sr, whose ancestors relocated from County Cavan to the United States in the mid-19th century. San Francisco 49ers great Joe Montana also has proud Irish roots, as do fellow former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll.

American football was first played in Ireland by US military personnel during the 1940s, before the first unofficial game took place in Banbridge in 1983. And by 1984 the Irish American Football Association had formed, with the Dublin Celts, Craigavon Cowboys and Belfast Blitzers among the earliest clubs to compete in the Irish American Football League.

The Steelers would later pre-empt this week’s historic return when they took on the Chicago Bears in a preseason matchup at Croke Park on July 27, 1997 as part of the NFL’s America Bowl series. While the game was staged with a view to spreading football internationally, its organisation was also a nod to the Steelers franchise’s Irish heritage.

Steelers founder Art Rooney Sr was a son of Irish immigrants from the Newry, which straddles Counties Down and Armagh. Upon his death in 1988 he was succeeded by son Dan Rooney, who became instrumental in bringing Pittsburgh’s preseason game to Ireland in 1997 before being appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, under Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2012.

The Steelers won six Super Bowl titles and eight AFC Championships under Rooney’s leadership, a widespread lasting legacy on football also featuring his role as a driving force behind the rule requiring NFL teams to interview at least one minority candidate when filling head coach and general manager vacancies, now famously known as the Rooney Rule.

“I’m really excited about it, to be honest with you, to represent the NFL for the first time there,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin told Sky Sports.

“But also think about the late ambassador, Dan Rooney, and I know how excited he would be about this. And so oftentimes, when it comes to mind for me, I’m thinking about him.”

That it will be the Steelers who represent the NFL on their regular-season bow in Ireland is fitting. Their long-time intentions to bring a game back to Ireland heightened in likelihood and intensity in 2023 when they were awarded rights to expand their brand in the territory as part of the NFL’s Global Markets Program. A debut Watch Party at Croke Park would follow, so too a dedicated Steelers Ireland podcast, so too free-to-watch access to the team’s three preseason games this summer on the GAA’s streaming platform. It was always the Steelers.

“I love being a representative of the game of American football, and putting it on the global stage and fostering new relationships between fans and the game,” Tomlin added. “It’s an honour to do so. That’s the perspective in which I see it.

“It’s something that’s humbling to be a part of. I think that’s the beautiful thing about sport. These guys come from varying backgrounds, big cities, small towns, etc. It’s a surreal moment to realise the physical places that the game can take you.”

From the fanbase to the history to the infrastructure, Ireland had always cut the look of a natural host for the NFL in its mission to expand globally. It is no stranger to the requirements of a footballing headquarters outside of the US, having staged 11 College Football games since 1988 when Boston College beat Army in the inaugural Emerald Isle Classic, now known as the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. In that time the games have averaged an attendance of 40,235, with 47,221 most recently turning out to see Iowa State beat Kansas State at the Aviva Stadium in August.

In 2011 Croke Park director Peter McKenna outlined an aspiration to bring an NFL regular-season game to Dublin; come 2025, it is estimated that around 350,000 people in Ireland watch or follow the league as the nation delivers one of a record seven international games this season. Aspiration fulfilled.

College Football presented an acid test for a nation’s ability to champion the pageantry, vibrancy and colour customary to America’s game; Ireland, to nobody’s surprise, have mastered it. Hence, the NFL’s desire to follow suit.

“It’s gonna be awesome,” Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt told Sky Sports. “I know Steel Nation is really well represented over there, obviously to the Rooney family being ambassadors over there. “Looking forward to hopefully having a pint or two of Guinness, or after the game!”

The NFL and those affiliated with taking the game across the world repeatedly refer to a ‘bigger picture’ of its border-shattering global escalation. Sure, the games themselves are the money-makers, the chief protagonists and the headline acts, but they also serve as the nucleus for wider ambitions surrounding grassroots expansion, community impact and, more recently, the discovery of cross-sport talent, all in view of delivering generation-spanning longevity.

The league recently announced the launch of its NFL Flag schools initiative, in which it will partner with Sport Ireland and American Football Ireland to provide NFL Flag football starter kits to more than 900 post-primary schools across Ireland for students between the ages of 12 and 16. Not only will it deliver flag football equipment, but also free online educational resources for teachers in the classroom.

Ireland’s kicking factory meanwhile continues to grow in both prominence, depth and momentum as the league elevates its search for untapped football talent within GAA athletes, such are the transferrable skills. At the heart of Ireland’s kicking revolution is Tadhg Leader, who founded Leader Kicking in 2022 as a pathway to opportunities for athletes before later teaming up with the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program.

Among the agency’s success stories is former Down team goalkeeper Smyth, who signed to the Saints practice after coming through the IPP in 2024. Smyth features within a growing Irish presence in the NFL alongside Derry’s Jude McAtamney of the New York Giants, Dublin’s Mark McNamee of the Green Bay Packers and McNamee’s Lambeau teammate Dan Whelan of Enniskerry, County Wicklow.

Whelan notably made history against the Bears in September 2023 as the first Irish-born NFL player since Neil O’Donoghue, who played as a kicker in the NFL from 1977 to 1985. He also became the first Irishman to play in the NFL playoffs since O’Donoghue in 1983 when he punted three times in Green Bay’s victory over the Dallas Cowboys in January 2024.

Elsewhere Ross Bolger of Laois, another discovery of Leader, plays professionally as a kicker and punter for the BC Lions in the Canadian Football League having been on scholarship at Idaho State. NFL Academy product Andy Quinn is meanwhile in his first year at Boston College having been named Ireland’s Kicking King by winning a field goal competition at the 2022 Aer Lingus College Football Classic. The Irish kickers are coming, in their numbers and seeking to take over.

“Gaelic football is a sport that would lend itself to kickers and punters emerging from there, and it’s probably just that we haven’t flipped over that rock before,” NFL UK General Manager Henry Hodgson told Sky Sports NFL. “It’s really more that the microscope hadn’t been placed on the opportunity that Irish kickers might have.

“It’s a testament to some of the people that worked in there and I think, in particular, Tadhg Leader, who sort of established this pathway for Irish kickers.

“Some of those guys are having opportunities through his program to be part of the NFL International Player Pathway program or to make it into the NFL through the draft as well. It’s not surprising, but I suppose it took us by surprise at the same time.”

Ireland have seen to ticking all the boxes, from the gridiron to the Guinness and beyond. Sunday will pose as a new milestone for the NFL and a deserved reward for hidden figures on the ground following a fierce campaign to bring the league to the country.

Transporting multiple games internationally will always split opinion among fans who may empathise with their US friends as they watch their beloved teams travel overseas. It is a conundrum the league must continue to address and balance as it resumes its pursuit of new territories. But with the Steelers ties and the historical prevalence of the game there, Ireland just feels right.

“They can expect good hospitality, they can expect a good time, have a few beers, the Guinness is good back home, we’ve got beautiful scenery, I’m sure anybody who comes will have a good time,” said Smyth.

NFL to the World

Sky Sports NFL’s new series ‘NFL to the World’ shines a light on stories of how American Football has expanded beyond the borders of the United States.

Part One: Meet the man leading Wheelchair American Football’s Paralympic dream

Meet Geraint Griffiths, the man leading Wheelchair American Football’s pursuit of a dream place at the Paralympic Games.

Part Two: The NFL Academy dancer who escaped Nigeria’s violent ‘trenches’

Benson Jerry. The kid with the fancy footwork. The kid that borrowed 30p for the bus. The kid that had never tried lasagne. The kid that had never flown. The no-longer-a-kid becoming the inspiration kids like him never had.

Watch the Minnesota Vikings face the Pittsburgh Steelers at Croke Park in Dublin, live on Sky Sports NFL on Sunday September 28; Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW.