Pittsburgh Steelers embrace Dublin trip with fun change to practice jerseys

Mike Moraitis

Pittsburgh Steelers embrace Dublin trip with fun change to practice jerseys image

Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

The Pittsburgh Steelers have officially arrived in Dublin, Ireland for their historic Week 4 game against the Minnesota Vikings.

The Steelers and Vikings will be playing the first-ever NFL game in Ireland on Sunday, and it's the first international game Pittsburgh played since 2013.

Ahead of the game, the Steelers are getting in their final practice on Friday and made a fun change to their jerseys for the session.

As ESPN's Brooke Pryor reports, the Steelers changed the names on the back of the jerseys to Gaelic versions.

For example, right tackle Troy Fautanu is now "Mac Fautanu," and rookie defensive lineman Yahya Black is "O'Duibh."

The Steelers departed for Dublin on Thursday after practice, much to the chagrin of fans who wanted to see the team leave earlier in the week in order to help with the acclimation process ahead of kickoff.

In 2013, the Steelers left on a Thursday for their game in London, but defensive lineman Cam Heyward, who is the only Steeler on the roster who played in that contest, admitted that turned out to be a bad idea.

“We left Thursday night and arrived Friday morning,” he said earlier this year on the Not Just Football with Cam Heyward podcast. “Everybody was asleep during practice. Everybody was falling asleep during the stretch.

"Then we had meetings after, everybody fell asleep there. Then, during the game, everybody was asleep in the first half. It’s rough because you’re going, what? It’ll be five hours ahead? So you’re trying to get sleep on a plane going over there. It’s not ideal.”

The Steelers reportedly wanted to leave earlier in the week, showing they had learned their lesson, but the NFL denied their request and both Pittsburgh and Minnesota left at the same time.

Vikings and Steelers fans will have to be ready to watch the game a bit earlier than normal this week, as Minnesota and Pittsburgh will kick off at 9:30 a.m. ET on Sunday.

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Mike Moraitis

Mike Moraitis is a freelance writer who covers the NFL for the Sporting News. Over his nearly two decades covering sports, Mike has also worked for Bleacher Report, USA TODAY and FanSided. He hates writing in the third person.