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