Dublin appears set to host its first NFL regular season game after the league commissioner confirmed plans are being discussed for 2025.
Speaking at Sunday’s clash between the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers in Munich, Germany, Roger Goodell confirmed that Ireland was on the list of potential overseas locations for the 2025 schedule.
“We are definitely going to Spain, they’ve announced that,” said Goodell, speaking to the NFL Network. “We expect to return to Mexico City, we expect to return to Brazil.
“We will certainly be back in the UK, and we’re also looking at the potential of another game in the UK area – in Ireland, possibly. That’s a possibility.”
Goodell explained that the league is looking at playing up to eight games abroad in 2025: three in London and one each in Spain, Brazil, Germany, Mexico and Ireland.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets currently hold the NFL’s marketing rights for Ireland. The Steelers in particular have been active in the country, hosting a series of fan events in Croke Park, leaving GAA HQ as the likely destination for a regular season game. In 1997, a preseason fixture between the Steelers and Chicago Bears was held at Jones’ Road.
Plans to bring the NFL to Dublin have been in the works for a number of years, but the awarding of the marketing rights accelerated the public conversation. Steelers’ Director of Business Dan Rooney had previously said that the franchise wanted to bring a game to Ireland “from the start” of that process.
Irish interest the sport has always been strong but it has grown significantly in recent years. More Irish players are becoming a fixture in the league, with Wicklow-born Daniel Whelan ending a 38-year wait for an Irish player when lining out for the Green Bay Packers in 2023. Last week, Derry native Jude McAtamney played for the Giants as a kicker while former Down goalkeeper Charlie Smyth is on the practice squad of the New Orleans Saints.
The NFL has previously conducted feasibility studies on hosting games in Ireland, but Goodell’s comments were the surest indication yet that the wait is set to come to an end in 2025.