From JC Penney to Croke Park: An NFL day I thought I’d never see

Steelers fan gets up close and personal as NFL idols play Croke Park

By Alan LaCasse

I was adopted as a young boy by an American couple working on a US airbase. Though they bought a British newspaper every day, they also had subscriptions to American papers.

We didn’t watch much television, so as a sports-mad kid I devoured the sports pages instead. I read about the exploits of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, The Fridge and John Elway. Those names felt larger than life, almost mythical.

At Christmas we would get the JCPenney and Sears catalogues, spending hours poring over them, circling toys and gadgets to put on the Santy list. Every year I asked for the same thing: a Pittsburgh Steelers helmet. I never got one, but there was always something about the black and gold that pulled me in.

Little did that little boy know that, thirty-odd years later, he would be pitch-side at Croke Park for the first-ever NFL regular season game played in Ireland.

These are my thoughts on that historic day in Dublin. I waited to write them because I didn’t want the occasion itself to cloud my judgement.

I’ve been to big sporting events before. I was at Ireland v England in the Aviva. I’ve attended a North London derby at White Hart Lane. With the exception of the in-stadium atmosphere, what you see on television at those games is largely what you get in the ground.

The NFL is different.

An NFL game is sport married to entertainment.

There were speaker stacks the size of a small house positioned around the pitch, and they weren’t just used pre-game. Music played constantly throughout the afternoon. The huge screens didn’t just show replays — they prompted the crowd when to cheer, and the crowd happily obliged.

There was a live band playing during various breaks in play, which, in fairness, there are plenty of. The half-time show itself was much quicker than I expected. I took the opportunity to dash to the media room for a quick drink and somehow managed to miss the entire performance by Miles Smyth.

At one point I genuinely questioned whether I was seeing things as a giant Pop-Tart ran around the pitch with a gang of kids firing T-shirts into the crowd.

For a 60-minute game that takes more than three hours to play, the time passed surprisingly quickly. It never felt long. There was always something happening, even when the ball wasn’t in play.

A special mention has to go to Lyra. I’ve heard many renditions of Amhrán na bhFiann over the years, but none as powerful or emotive as hers before this game. The stadium felt locked in.

The Game Itself

The Pittsburgh Steelers were designated the home team, and the crowd reflected that. Terrible Towels everywhere. A sea of black and gold, with far fewer flashes of Vikings purple and white.

The Vikings opened the scoring midway through the first quarter with a field goal. It wasn’t until the final minute of the quarter that the Steelers responded, Kenneth Gainwell rushing in for a touchdown to cap off a 71-yard drive.

The Steelers struck first again early in the second quarter. Veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers launched an 80-yard pass to DK Metcalf, sending the Steelers fans into raptures.

Minnesota handed Pittsburgh a chance to extend the lead when Carson Wentz threw his first interception of the game, giving the Steelers possession at the Vikings’ 35-yard line. However, the subsequent field-goal attempt was blocked by a resilient Vikings defence.

The Vikings closed out the half with another field goal, sending us into halftime with the Steelers leading 14–6.

The third quarter belonged entirely to Pittsburgh. The only score came from Gainwell again, this time punching it in from four yards out for his second rushing touchdown of the day.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Steelers added a field goal to stretch the lead to 24–6. As a sporting contest, it looked done.

But Carson Wentz and the Vikings offence weren’t finished.

Xavier Scott hauled in a 16-yard touchdown pass to complete a 70-yard drive, cutting the deficit to ten points with plenty of time still on the clock. Momentum had shifted.

The Steelers chewed up 3 minutes and 41 seconds on their next drive but came away empty-handed, turning the ball over on downs. The Vikings took full advantage, marching 99 yards down the field before Jalen Nailor finished it off with a two-yard touchdown reception.

Suddenly, it was a one-score game.

A field goal would tie it. A touchdown would win it.

The Vikings defence rose again, forcing a quick three-and-out and giving their offence one final chance. The fairytale ending wasn’t to be, though. On fourth-and-17, Wentz’s pass fell incomplete, handing the ball back to Pittsburgh, who ran down the clock.

Final Thoughts

The Steelers’ ties to Ireland through the Rooney family, who emigrated from Northern Ireland, were evident throughout the day. This felt like a home game in everything but name.

The atmosphere was electric — the noise, the music, the constant engagement with the crowd. Despite the stop-start nature of the sport, you never felt the passage of time. For all its breaks in play, the NFL knows how to keep people entertained.

Dublin showed there is a real appetite for NFL football, and I hope this is only the beginning. Croke Park felt like the right stage for it.

And wouldn’t it be something to see Charlie Smyth lining up a clutch field goal on that same turf someday?

For the boy who never got his Steelers helmet, it felt like a pretty good consolation prize.

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