Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin talks to players during the first half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. Associated Press

Mike Tomlin isn't using the Pittsburgh Steelers' trip to Ireland as a reason to offer up a history lesson about what the team and the Rooney family mean to Ireland.

There's no need.

Yes, the team's ties to the Emerald Isle run deep. Yet, Tomlin knew Hall of Famer and former U.S. ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney — still known almost universally as Mr. Rooney nearing a decade after his death — well enough to know how Rooney would feel if the Steelers spent the run-up to Sunday's game against Minnesota at Croke Park in Dublin reveling in the past and not the task at hand.

“This is a business trip,” Tomlin said before Pittsburgh left for the NFL's first regular-season game in Dublin.

Besides, the club hardly needs an overseas trip to Rooney's homeland as an opportunity to talk about what the family in general and Dan Rooney in particular has meant not just to Pittsburgh and Ireland, but the NFL, too.

“The education is continual,” Tomlin said.

And so is the work on the field by the Steelers (2-1), who face an early litmus test against the Vikings (2-1).

Pittsburgh has been more opportunistic than awe-inspiring through three weeks. The defense is allowing yards in huge chunks. Aaron Rodgers and the offense have been remarkably efficient in the red zone but remarkably average just about anywhere else.

They've been outgained in all three games, relying on turnovers — a momentum-swinging fumbled kickoff return in the opener against the New York Jets and a staggering five takeaways last week in New England — to get by.

While that recipe was good enough to beat two teams that don't figure to be in the playoff mix come December, Minnesota and its defense led by coordinator and former Steelers assistant Brian Flores pose a considerable step up. And Tomlin and the rest of the Steelers know it.

Sure, they'd have loved a chance to spend more time in Dublin — Rodgers said he would have preferred to leave for Ireland on Monday rather than late Thursday — but the reality is the Steelers don't need to lean into the local culture but rather the chance to build some early season momentum while honoring the family name.

“This game means a lot to all of us, to the league, to the Rooney family, so we want to represent the team and the Rooney legacy well,” Rodgers said.