If you haven’t heard, the NFL is expanding its international footprint to Ireland, where it plans to play a game in September of 2025. According to the Irish Examiner, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be playing a game at Croke Park next year “pending a final decision by the new Irish government.”
Why does this matter for Green Bay Packers fans? Well, according to the NFL’s rotating schedule, the Packers will play against the NFC East and AFC North in 2025. The AFC North’s Steelers are slated to be one of the Packers’ road games next year.
Would the NFL make Green Bay play an international game in September in back-to-back seasons? Maybe not, but if pairing two large franchises like the Philadelphia Eagles and Packers was important for the league’s debut in Brazil this year, Steelers-Packers would do something similar in Ireland.
Whoever the Steelers play will make up the first NFL regular season game in Ireland, but not the first game ever in the country. Previously, the Steelers and Chicago Bears played at Croke Park in the 1997 preseason. The 82,300-seat stadium is considered the country’s national stadium. The last American football game played there was a matchup between Penn State and UCF in 2014, one of just two college football games ever played in the stadium.
After 2014, college football’s “Shamrock Series” was moved to Aviva Stadium, which is also located in Dublin. Aviva Stadium, for reference, holds 49,000 people for American football and opened in 2010. Croke Park, in contrast, was opened in 1884 and renovated in 2004.
