The Bears and Steelers took the field at the American Bowl in Dublin, Ireland, on Sunday accompanied by U.S. Army parachutists and smoky fireworks. Still, the fog of incomprehension never lifted for many fans at Croke Park.
For the locals, the first NFL game played locally was an unusual opportunity to have fun in a country that knows how to party. Hot dogs, beer, music and cheerleaders, yes; TV timeouts, quarterback controversies, going deep or up the middle, no thank you.The crowd of 30,269 rocked to James Brown's "Living in America" and other recorded music. Outside Croke Park, hawkers sold T-shirts that omitted the "h" from Pittsburgh, but nobody seemed to notice.
And for several hundred Steelers fans accompanying the team from Pittsburgh, the 30-17 exhibition victory was icing on the cake for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Emerald Isle.
They had tried to be ambassadors for the sport with the locals, but met a certain bemused resistance or disinterest.
"The Irish people are the most gracious people you could meet. But they aren't going to give up their local sports for football any time soon," said Collin St. Johns, 27, a Steelers fan who flew in from Los Angeles.
Eleanore Kosczak, from Reno, Nev., was among the Steelers fans who fielded questions from high school Gaelic football players Friday.
"Their big questions were, `Why do your players wear so much equipment?' and `Why does the game take so long?"' she said. "I told them about commercials."
At least some fans heard about the views of Steelers linebacker Greg Lloyd, who said earlier this week that some Irish people struck him as rude and unwilling to serve him in restaurants, shops and the hotel.
A banner in Gaelic flew from the top of the east stands, telling Lloyd in no uncertain terms his comments weren't appreciated. American officials, once they received the translation, ordered it removed by halftime.
A raucous crowd of Northern Ireland soccer fans arrived purely to follow the movements of the 20 cheerleaders, imports themselves from Britain and its two World League teams: the London Monarchs and Scottish Claymores. Wolf whistles outnumbered cheers during some parts of the game.
An effort to bind the two nations together was obvious from the outset. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern took part in the opening coin toss alongside U.S. Ambassador Jean Kennedy-Smith.
And the game program included the lyrics to the American and Irish anthems side by side, and a "Bluffer's Guide to American Football" that strained to explain some finer points to the locals.
The guide noted that, unlike British and Irish team sports that often play to a tie score, "Americans generally don't believe that a game should end without a clear-cut winner and loser."
The Steelers took care of that.
Eagles
Center Steve Everitt went down with an injury on his ninth play with the Eagles. Fortunately for Philadelphia, the mishap wasn't as bad as it first seemed.
Everitt, who signed a four-year, $11 million contract after leaving the Baltimore Ravens as a free agent, rolled on the ground in pain as members of his former team and his current team surrounded him during Saturday's scrimmage at Lehigh University, won 23-7 by the Eagles.
"It was scary," coach Ray Rhodes said. "That's the last thing you want is a good player getting hurt in one of these. I held my breath."
By the time Rhodes exhaled, Everitt was up and being helped off the field. Preliminary reports showed a sprained left knee and left ankle. But the 6-foot-5, 295-pound center appears to be all right and should not miss any significant time.
"You always think the worst when something like that happens," Everitt said. "Thank God it wasn't as bad as it looked. I feel fine now.
"It was a simple draw play. I went up against the middle linebacker and somebody just rolled up on me. It's the kind of thing that happens a lot. It was more scary than anything."
Lions
Tight end Eric Stocz learned an important lesson last summer when he was beaten out for a roster spot on the Houston Oilers by a player who also served as a long snapper.
This summer, he has added that duty to his repertoire.
"Everybody needs a long snapper," said Detroit assistant coach Dennis Murphy, who helps out with the special teams. "Long snappers are very valuable in this league."
Stocz started working on his skills with Murphy after Thursday's practice, and has been doing well.
"I've been working on it for the past couple of days, and Coach has seen improvement already," Stocz said. "He said, `As a reserve, do it.' The more you can do, the better."