American football team keen to return to Dublin

The Pittsburgh Steelers are keen to make a return to Dublin to play another regular season American football game.

Dan Rooney, a vice-president at the Steelers, described the team's recent NFL game at Croke Park as "incredible".

In spite of the success of that sell-out game against the Minnesota Vikings in September, no more NFL fixtures have yet been confirmed for Dublin.

Rooney told BBC News NI: "The Steelers would love to come back some day because that day at Croke was incredible."

He continued: "I can't speak for the NFL on that but I know that what they saw in September of 2025 was a proving ground for Dublin and the island to be able to host NFL games."

The Rooney family, which owns the Steelers, has roots in County Down. They left Newry in the 1840s at the time of the Irish famine.

Rooney, vice-president of business development and strategy, was speaking in west Belfast at an American Football event hosted by the Steelers at Colin Glen leisure complex.

Primary school children took part in a non-contact variation of the sport known as flag football.

One of the players, Nathan, said: "You need to be fast, agile and you need to have good reflexes."

Another, Eva, said: "It kind of reminds me of gaelic (football) ... a wee tiny bit."

Rather than tackle an opponent, players try to stop them by pulling off a long tag, called a flag, which is worn on each hip.

Played by both boys and girls, each team has five players on the pitch.

In total, 24 schools from across the island of Ireland are taking part in the tournament, with the final scheduled to take place in May.

A former Steelers player, Will Allen, helped to coach the children before Monday's round of matches in Belfast.

He said speed and agility were important and stressed the non-contact element to flag football.

"There will be collisions, just like rugby or even in gaelic football, but there's less of that because you're grabbing for a flag and you don't have to make direct contact," he said.

Flag football is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world and it will feature at the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

The tournament - with games in Belfast, Dublin and Cork - is being run in partnership with American Football Ireland.

It is estimated the historic Steelers-Vikings match in the NFL in Dublin generated more than €100m (£86m) for the Irish economy.

The NFL has held regular-season games in London since 2007 and has been expanding across Europe in recent years, with Germany, Spain and Ireland all staging games.

Fixtures have also taken place in Mexico and Brazil.

As for the growth of the game in Ireland, Rooney said: "We're seeing excitement around our game, which is really special. It starts at the grassroots level. It starts with youth participation and kids learning the sport and falling in love with it.

"The athletes are picking it up quite quickly."

What was once America's game is now clearly global in scope.

The flag football fixtures in Belfast proves the point.