The Pittsburgh Steelers team that came to Dublin last weekend had a long winning tradition behind them, and won again here, beating the Minnesota Vikings 24-21 on an extraordinary afternoon in Croke Park.
But there was a time when the Steelers were perennial losers in the US National Football League, incapable of reaching end-of-season play-offs never mind the Super Bowl.
And their transformation into one of the most successful teams in history has been widely credited to an Irish priest who brought a change of luck – or divine intervention, depending on your beliefs – in the early 1970s.
The franchise’s original owner, Art Rooney, famously funded it in the early years on the proceeds of a horse racing accumulator bet, worth $160,000, won at Saratoga in 1936.
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