Steelers’ Art Rooney II Facing Criticism After Revealing Ireland Plan

The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the NFL’s first regular season game in Ireland this season. How the team handles traveling to Europe will likely be a talking point as the Week 4 matchup with the Minnesota Vikings approaches.

On Wednesday, Steelers president Art Rooney II shared during a team website interview with Missi Matthews that the Steelers plan to travel to Ireland late in the week.

“I think we’re planning to leave similar to what we did for the last international trip,” Rooney told Matthews. “Probably leave on Thursday and practice there on Friday and Saturday and have the game on Sunday and fly out Sunday night.

“I don’t think it’ll be too much different from the last trip.”

Steelers Depot’s Matthew Marczi immediately criticized Rooney for that tentative plan.

“Back in 2013, the Vikings flew to London on Monday in preparation for their game against the Steelers,” Marczi wrote. “Pittsburgh flew out on Thursday and plans to do the same thing again for the Ireland game.

“If the Steelers do, they may embarrass themselves on the Rooney’s ancestral ground. Jet lag is a real thing, as is acclimating yourself to your environment.”

Cameron Heyward, Ben Roethlisberger Blasted Steelers’ 2013 European Itinerary

To support his argument, Marczi referenced quotes from Steelers defensive captain Cameron Heyward and former quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

For the 2013 Week 4 matchup versus the Vikings at Wembley Stadium in London, the Steelers flew over Thursday night and landed Friday morning. With the ability of hindsight, both players were very critical of the team’s travel plans for their 2013 trip to London.

In 2023, Roethlisberger said the Steelers “were so exhausted and gassed” during that London matchup. Last year, Heyward said the 2013 itinerary was “the worst thing we did for that trip.’

Heyward also shared coaches fell asleep in meetings at practice Friday.

Interestingly, the Steelers were the better team in the fourth quarter of their first international matchup. They outscored the Vikings by 10 points in the final quarter.

But Minnesota built a 17-point lead and held on to win 34-27.

Art Rooney II’s Hypocritical Stance on NFL Flights East

In the same interview with Matthews, Rooney explained that one of the things he looks at when the NFL schedule comes out every year is the primetime matchups and where they are.

Rooney stated he doesn’t like the Steelers playing primetime west coast games.

“The only complaint that I have [with Pittsburgh’s 2025 schedule], night game on the west coast is always something that I prefer to avoid, and we got one of those this year,” Rooney said. “These things happen.”

The Steelers will face the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football in Week 10.

Rooney didn’t explain why he prefers to avoid primetime west coast games. Presumably, it’s because flying back late or early to Pittsburgh is taxing on the players.

If Rooney considers that difficult, though, it’s very odd he doesn’t approach a flight to Europe the same way.

Flying east across multiple time zones is never easy. But Los Angeles to Pittsburgh is roughly a five-hour flight over three time zones.

Going from Pittsburgh to Dublin will be more than seven hours and five time zones.

Furthermore, the flight Rooney prefers to avoid takes place six days before the team’s next game. If the Steelers take the red-eye flight to Dublin on Thursday night, the team will play the Vikings roughly 48 hours after landing.

In Rooney’s defense, he left open the possibility of changing the team’s itinerary to Europe.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve done it,” Rooney said. “So, we’ll have to look into what other teams have been doing lately.”