Foremost among the many sporting and entertainment events held at Croke Park each year are what many consider to be the apex of Irish sports. As the home venue of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Croke Park is packed with thousands of fans from all over Ireland and beyond each year for the All-Ireland Championships in both hurling and Gaelic football, Ireland's indigenous sports.

Remarkably though, despite filling huge stadiums and capturing the attention of viewers on TV and radio across the world, these are played by amateur players who get up the following morning to go about their regular jobs within the home counties they represent. It's a unique stadium and sport which perfectly captures "Irishness".

However for Irish NFL fans, one of the most memorable events the stadium has hosted was "The American Bowl" in 1997, a preseason game played between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears. The game, which was won by the Steelers, was played in the north Dublin city stadium at the behest of former Steelers president Dan Rooney, who would later be named United States ambassador to Ireland. The fact that the game was played at Croke Park highlighted his love for the venue, the GAA and Irish culture.

The Steelers have continued to value the island of Ireland as one of the cornerstones of their international presence and added both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland as part of their Global Markets Program in 2023. They also have Global Markets Programs in Mexico and Germany.

As part of those programs, the Steelers have held two sold out fan watch parties at Croke Park in 2023 and 2024, hosted by former players such as Alan Faneca, Santonio Holmes, Willie Parker and James Farrior.

The 1997 game, played at the all-grass, horseshoe-shaped stadium, took place while Croke Park was in the midst of a major renovation which began in 1993 and took 12 years to complete. The renovation was done in phases so as not to force the GAA from having to host its key games elsewhere.

That was out of necessity too as Croke Park is one of the five largest stadiums in Europe and the All-Ireland Finals, which are played there every year, always sell out.

For the many tourists and sports fans who flock to the Irish capital every year, Croke Park's skyline walk is one of the biggest attractions in Dublin, offering visitors a chance to walk its upper rim and get one of the best views of the city. Few sporting venues in the world have a history to rival this iconic and deeply symbolic stadium.

Croke Park was named after Archbishop Thomas W. Croke who was the GAA's first patron when the association founded in 1884. The GAA now boasts some 1,600 clubs across the island of Ireland, with Croker hosting nearly 90 matches per year.

It has been the home of the GAA since the first Gaelic football match was held there in 1891. The first All-Ireland match was held there in 1896, an important time in Irish history when many on the island wanted independence from British occupation. Gaelic football and hurling as the centerpiece of many Irish communities and a means for people to connect with each other and their culture, was for a long time either discreetly discouraged or openly prohibited by those in power.

On Nov. 21, 1920, British troops, in furious response to several of their agents being assassinated by members of the rebellious Irish Republican Army led by Michael Collins, went to Croke Park and opened fire on players and fans gathered for a Sunday match. Twelve people were killed in the shooting, while two others died by being crushed by a panicked crowd who were blocked from exiting the stadium, bringing the death toll to 14. Dozens of others were wounded in what became known as "Bloody Sunday," one of the seminal events of the Irish War of Independence.

Two of those wounded were players, with one of those, Michael Hogan, dying of his injuries. Croke Park's Hogan Stand is named in honor of him.

"It's a very, very special place," said Alan Milton, the GAA's Director of Communications. "It's iconic. It's not just another sporting venue. Really, to the people here, Croke Park is the nation's playground. It's where people come to enjoy the biggest days in Irish society."

The GAA operates a museum at Croke Park that not only includes the history of the GAA's games at Croke Park, but a memorial for those lives lost in 1920, as well. It's all part of the Croke Park experience that also serves as a tribute to remember the greats of Gaelic football and hurling, the island's two most important sports.

In 2011 Queen Elizabeth II, the British monarch at the time, visited Croke Park and the Hogan Stand where she was presented with a leather bound history of the GAA as well as a sliotar and a hurley stick, the ball and stick used in hurling, the fastest and oldest field sport in the world.

"The GAA is not just about sport, for many people in this country, it's a way of life," said Milton of the GAA, which has some 650,000 members across the island. "In rural Ireland, in particular, the GAA club and the pitch and the facilities are a social center. They may well be the only social outlet and sporting outlet in that community. It has a profound reach.

"We have a very privileged and special position in Irish society that goes far beyond the promotion of Gaelic football and hurling. But Gaelic football and hurling are what we are here to promote, so without them, the whole thing would be hollow."

For decades, that also meant using Croke Park for something other than GAA events was sacrosanct.

In 1972, Muhammed Ali fought Al Lewis there, but beyond that outside events weren't held in the stadium until Notre Dame played Navy in the Shamrock Classic in college football in 1996. The American Bowl followed the next season, while Penn State played UCF there in 2014.

The venue also has been utilized in recent years for rugby and soccer matches, as well as a number of concerts, including headliners such as homegrown acts U2 and Westlife, Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks and Coldplay. It also has hosted the Special Olympics and the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha during COVID.

"Our society has changed beyond recognition," Milton said. "One of the things that has changed is how we use Croke Park. In many ways, the GAA is a mirror image of our society, plusses and minuses, mostly plusses, I'd like to think. The stadium was developed at great expense and we've had all kinds of events here since."

Why not showcase that for the world to see with an NFL game?

"It's a place people want to come and visit. It's awe-inspiring when it's empty," Milton said. "You can imagine what it's like when it's the parades, two teams marching behind the band. They parade before the match like they're going into battle. It's just a very special place for a lot of people around the country."

And this fall, it will be a special place for the NFL.