DUBLIN — Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II classified the team’s late travel schedule to Ireland as a ‘football decision’ while quarterback Aaron Rodgers wished the team had traveled earlier in the week.
“I would’ve liked to have the guys over here for a few more days, too,” Rooney said. “But we’re in the middle of the season, so we had to do what’s best for the football side of things.”
A report by Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said the NFL strong-armed the Steelers into coming over later after they wanted to come early. So, what happened?
Meanwhile, the NFL’s senior vice president of football and international relations says the league works in conjunction with teams and never forces them to come over early or later.
“Michael Signora, the league’s senior VP of football and international communications, said it is up to each team to decide how early or late in the week it wants to arrive for an international game. Sometimes, those decisions are based on hotel and practice site availability,” he told Dulac.
The Steelers have worked around that with the Terrible Towel Tour with Max Starks around Ireland to get their name and brand out in the country even more.
Meanwhile, the players arrived Friday morning and began the acclimation process throughout the next day with a heavier Saturday than usual.
Either way, with more international games on the schedule likely to come in the future, the Steelers will have to hash out all of their practices on these games sooner rather than later.