The Pittsburgh Steelers have left Aaron Rodgers a bit frustrated with their upcoming travel plans.
The Steelers will face the Minnesota Vikings at Croke Park in Dublin, Ire. on Sunday, marking the first international game of the 2025 NFL season. The Steelers made the decision not to travel to Ireland until Thursday evening and did not arrive there until Friday morning local time.
For Rodgers, the decision was a missed opportunity. He would have liked to travel earlier in the week in order to do some sightseeing.
“It is what it is, but if the schedule had been a little different, if I could have chosen it, maybe we get over on Monday; Tuesday is the day off,” Rodgers said Friday, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “Good to get out, see some things. It’s a beautiful country, it seems like, from pictures.”
Steelers owner Art Rooney II defended the team’s travel plans and said they were a “football decision.”
The Steelers probably should have seen this one coming. Rodgers had the exact same complaint three years ago when the Green Bay Packers opted to wait until late in the week to fly to London for a game. Rodgers, of course, has the resources to travel on his own during the offseason if he so desired, and it’s possible the team actually does not want players using the Dublin visit as something of a mini-vacation.
Rodgers is more disappointed than anything else, and there do not appear to be any lingering hard feelings. On the other hand, this is another one of his old habits coming back to the forefront on a new team.
