Latest / The Irish Steelers Podcast / Tone Digs on the NFL Dublin Game, hopes for the Steelers in 2025

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Tone Digs on the NFL Dublin Game, hopes for the Steelers in 2025 · The Irish Steelers Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Irish airline aer Lingus will proudly serve as the presenting
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: partner of Steelers Ireland twenty twenty five. Airlingus's growth in
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: North America continues in twenty twenty five as the airline
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: prepares to fly to two new US destinations, Nashville and Indianapolis,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: using its new Airbus eight three twenty one xl or aircraft.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: This brings the number.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Of transatlantic routes operated by the airline from Dublin, Shannon
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and Manchester to twenty four. Steelers fans traveling to Ireland
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: for the Big Game can enjoy a relaxing journey when
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: they fly with air Lingus.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Air Lingus, You're very welcome, everybody.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: You're very welcome into this week's edition of the Irish
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Steeers Podcast, presented by aer Lingus and firstly, folks, I've
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: got a big podcast for you today and Steelers Nation,
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: It's time to take flight with air Lingus, an official
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: airline partner of the Pittsburgh Steels and a founding member
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: of Steelers Ireland. There's never a better time to book
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: your trip to Dublin with nineteen North American game wes,
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: including flights from nearby Cleveland. You can get ready for
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: warm Irish hospitality and plenty of room on board for
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: your terrible title, whether it's a game day or a getaway.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Airling just looks forward to saying you're very welcome to
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: the players and fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and you
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: can book now at airlingus dot com and folks, wow,
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: you know, Croke Park is almost at the point now
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: for the preparation for the first ever NFL doublin game.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Oasis the big storyline at the weekend. If you were
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: down there, I hope you enjoyed yourself. Believe there's one
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: more big concert this weekend for what it happens. And
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: during that weekend with Oasis of Steelers lost a close
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: game obviously backups involved as well, seventeen to fourteen against
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We're gonna have more than that
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: later on in the week as we look ahead to
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: the third preseason game against the Carline of Panthers. Just
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: to make you wear that game that's on Fursday night
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: early Friday morning will be on Virgi Media Sport, but
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: also you can listen to it on All the ball
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: More th coming out during the week special podcast for
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: you today. If you watch the Pot McAfee show or
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: listen to the Pot McAfee show, you'll be very aware
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: who this young man is. Delighted to have Tone Digs
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: that we know how big Steelers fans these guys are in.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Tone Digs must find sometime out of his busy schedule
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: to come on talk about his love for the team,
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: but also how excited he is for Dublin. So here
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: he is. Tone Digs on the Irish Sitters Podcast presented
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: by Erlingus. We have the football season getting closer and closer.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: Delighted to have this man on EPI. Tone Tone Diicks
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: on the Irish Staters podcast, Tone Fins for coming on man,
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: how are you doing?
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: That's thank you for having me. This is an absolute
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: honor to be on the Steelers Ireland Ireland pod. I
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: mean just getting ready for the season. Really, we're almost
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: I'm we're almost there.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: We're we're almost there. We're just over two weeks away
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: from the actual season starting itself. You're a busy man.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Do you get a chance to watch most of the
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: preseason or do you even catch the highlights or do
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: you do it over the first two games?
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: I try to watch as much as I can. I
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: normally watch the whole game. Week one, I had to
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: catch the highlights because I was in Florida for my honeymoon.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: But week two I got I got to watch the
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: whole thing. You know, I don't know how much you
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: can get from it because a lot of the starters
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: are out, but I think we can. We can see
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: enough that we like, there's some guys here that that
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: splash here and there that you can see and feel
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: good about.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Obviously a lot of people in Ireland and Europe listen
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: to this, but also people in Pittsburgh. You talk to
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: us about what it's like growing up as a theater's fun.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: Oh, it's I mean, it's the best, like, and I
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: don't think you like. I don't think I realized it
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: was the best until you kind of until I lived
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: somewhere else, like, because when when you're growing up. I
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: grew up in Pittsburgh. I lived there for the first
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: twenty eight years of my life. So when you grow
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: up there, you're just kind of in it and it's
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: all you know, and the whole city that's all they
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: care about. All the babies are born with terrible towels,
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: put on there, uh, put on them when they're when
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: they're born in the hospitals and stuff like that. So
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: like and the whole city shuts down. Obviously whenever there's
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: a the game on training camp up in latrob was
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: aw but like I until you I moved to Indianapolis
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: and then I saw a commercial for season tickets and
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: that was the first time I had ever seen a
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: commercial for season tickets because in Pittsburgh they don't have
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: to do commercials for season tickets. You're on a wait
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: list for fifty years or whatever. I've been on them.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: I've been on the wait list for twenty years or something. Though,
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: But no, like it's you don't realize how different it
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: is until you get somewhere else, and like it's there's
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: there's nowhere like it. Everyone it's it's like a it's
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: basically like a college like a college football atmosphere for
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: a professional team.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: I feel like you're gonna answer, which is it was
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: obviously a great answer, But I feel like you're gonna
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: put this on top of one. I'm about to ask
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: you you guys were in the trope. Two weeks ago,
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: I went the fall on Sunday definitely is just I've
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: never seen ana I like it in my life. It
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: was just incredible. I'm not sure you guys hot looked
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: at me, isn't That must have been awful lot to
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: you on a personal level doing that.
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: It did. It did because obviously I grew up going
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: there and just watching practice and stuff like that. But
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: the way that show was for everyone to show up
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: and then the players that we got on the show
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: in the way that the Steelers treated us, and then
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: we got to go down to practice after and be
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: on the sidelines and talk to the guys a bit after.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: It was surreal. Everything that I do is surreal, but
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: being there with that organization and and you know, I
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: just got to I got to sit up on the
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: on the hill and talk to Omar Khan for a
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: bit during practice and like that. I mean, that's just
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: insane to think about. That's not something that I ever
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: thought would be possible. But yeah, it was really cool
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: to beat La Troube everyone. It was very very hot,
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: but everyone showed up still in it.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: It was awesome and it was really special, and I
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: know when they come over here, it's going to be
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: very special. In a few weeks you were over here
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: in Ireland this this time last year, this time, this podcast,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: and how did you find that experience on just were
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: you surprised that maybe the passion of farms in Europe.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: Was it something that you didn't expect in that sense.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we've kind of seen it with with games over
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: in England and now Germany, so we kind of had
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: an idea of of kind of the passion, but seeing
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: it like in person was really really cool because I
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: was the first time. And uh, yeah, that that Ireland
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: trip last year was was something I will that you
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: guys were awesome. Obviously Mahan's were awesome, like being there
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: doing the show there, being able to go back there
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: later that night, you guys took us out on the
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: town and then the game day the next day and
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: the game, like everything was was absolute. But I can't
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: I can't wait. I like, I assume the Steelers game
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: over there with the Vikings is going to be a
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: ten x of what it was last year for Florida
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: State and Georgia Tech.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: I think like last year was pretty special and when
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Yad had college game then and the mix there was
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: so many people that are agreed. Yeah, like you guys
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: talked about it on your show. Over seven hundred people
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: trying to get tickets for this game. I'm not gonna
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: put you on the spot, but how much would you
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: love to be there, like as a fan, because I
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: feel like this this is gonna be probably the biggest
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: international game ever to this point.
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: Honestly, I think so too. I mean, at least I
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: hope I am praying that it's gonna be just like
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: a eighty percent Steelers crowd and the Terrible Towers are
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: going to overwhelm the broadcast and stuff like that, because
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: that would be really cool. Yeah, be like that's a
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: once in a lifetime thing. Being there would would be incredible. Uh.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: I think the players probably realized that too. Aaron's done
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: it before, like international games obviously, and he's a vet,
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: He's done a lot. But like, I feel like the
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: Ruins and the team are probably stressing how important this
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: is to everyone.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: It's definitely something that I seen when we were talking
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: to players first hand. They have definitely been not informed,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: but they like they know about it from from day one.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: Pot Fire mooveles over here during the summer is gonna
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: be Rogers fourth game international, which is crazy and a
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: good thing for him. For a lot of people listening month,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: what can they expect from Steelers funds apart from the
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: weave of the titles, because the atmosphere Aker sure is
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: pretty special as well.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the atmosphere is gonna be incredible. Ireland's a drinking town,
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: a drinking country, especially Dublin I I uh, and you're
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: gonna be uh invaded by another drinking town.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: In Pittsburgh and the Steelers fans there's been a lot
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: of beer drink drinking, and they're gonna be loud and
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: they're gonna be obnoxious, which but I'm not oxious in
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: a good way. There's gonna be a lot of a
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: lot of towels growing, a lot of chants through the streets,
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: which you guys are absolutely used to, so honestly, you know,
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: probably nothing out of the normal.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: The game four weeks on and against the pokerstans, that
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: is a big one. As a Steelers fund what's your faults.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: For the season?
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Do you like the week five bye? Obviously Rogers comes
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: in there's so much expectation.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: I like that. The schedule, in my mind is it's
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: a lot easier to to start the year. Obviously the Jets, Seattle,
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: New England, Minnesota, Cleveland, Like, that's that's not the hardest
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: start that you're gonna see in the NFL this year.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: So I like that they can with with Aaron being
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: new to the team, with the offensive line still being young.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: I like that they can kind of get their feet
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: wet a little bit against teams who and obviously they
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: can lose to every single one of these teams, but
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: also on the other side, they can also win every
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: single one of these games. So I like I like
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: in that sense that you know, you get and I
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: chance to get your feet wet, get some experience, then
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: you kind of hit that by which it is a
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: very very early by. I don't love the early buye,
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: but at least you kind of get those four games
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: and you kind of get an idea of where your
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: team's at, and maybe early in the season you can
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: kind of hit the reset if need be. But you know,
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: there's a there's a chance that the record after those
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: three games could be very good and hopefully it is.
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: So I like that that they can build confidence later
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: into the season.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: As a fun how much did the teakey to be
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: so peishient. We hadn't known Rogers to drop all summer
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: because that was it was frustrated in one sense of
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: deal the podcast. It's great to have him on and look,
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: you know him, or you've met him a lot more
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: times than I have. Anytime I've met him, have spooked him.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: He's such a nice guy. I hope people actually realize this.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: This is he's a gentleman. So it's excitingly No.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: No, he he is very nice and obviously we know
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: him a little bit from him coming on the show
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: for the last five years or whatever it's been. And
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: there was always I thought it was either the Steelers
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: or retirement. But there was a part of me that
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: was always like, I don't think he's gonna retire. I
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: don't think he's going to go out after last season
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: and how that went, and like I was confident that
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: the Steelers they had an idea that he was going
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: to come to because they weren't really doing anything else.
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: Worst case scenario is going to be Mason, And at
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: some point, at certain points during the summer I kind
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: of was just like, Oh, it's gonna be Mason and
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: then things will be fine or whatever. But then once
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: Aaron did sign like there was this this excitement and
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: jubilation for the for the season that based on all
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: their moves, especially but especially with with Aaron, that like,
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: all right, we got a chance this year and this
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: is gonna be awesome.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: And you've got staters fun in terms of your CV.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: But to actually have that excitement and then be able
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: to portray it on I'm not I'm not even gonna
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: say National TV because so many LODs and leadies over
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: here watch your show. Yeah, and during the week as well.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: What's it like doing that? Because that's pretty special on
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: even like you know, seeing you Guys once twice a
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: year and then watching it here. There are a lot
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: of Irish funds that you know watch you guys every day.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: Do you find it hard to maybe talk about of
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: our teams or do you have to get done?
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: That's great?
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: Originally originally I did, but we've been doing this so
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: long that it's but no, and and Pat, Let's like
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: Pat wants us to be ourselves, so like when we
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: are talking about our teams, I mean, that's that's that's
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: why we That's why he comes to us for them,
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: because he knows how passionate we are, and we're kind
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: of it's a lot of pressure sometimes, but we're kind
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: of speaking for the fan base, you know, and you
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: try to get it right, like you try to, Like
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: I still have my whole family still lives in Pittsburgh.
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: All my friends are still in Pittsburgh, so like I
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: talk to them. So I even though I haven't lived
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: there since twenty eighteen or whatever, I still think I
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: have a decent pulse on what the fan base and
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: what the city is talking about, just because I mean
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: I still talk to my friends and my dad and
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: my my family every week about them, so you get
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: you get an idea of how the city feels. So
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: but no, it's awesome to even just a little bit,
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: like I have a little bit of talking for the
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: city or about the city or for the fan base.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: I'm kind of how we feel about the team. But now, no,
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: I don't find it I don't find it hard to
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: talk about other teams too, just because I mean I
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: grew up in Pittsburgh. You grew up as a Steeler fan, yeah,
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: but just a football fan in general.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: And just finally, like we've talked about our Rodgers the group,
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: but there Geleen Ramsey gall and DK coming in some
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: serious statements be me for this team this year.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that's like you taught, you asked like
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: how it is growing up as a Steelers fan. This
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: is not something that ever happened before. They're a team
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: that that built through the draft and then they would
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: add later in free agency, just guys to kind of supplement. No,
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: never really any big names or anything like that. So
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: you you got a draft, you got excited for the
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: drafts because you know those were gonna be your guys,
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: and then free agency you waited till later in free agency.
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: But I mean this year, like with John new Smith
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: and DK and Jalen and even Darius Slay, like they
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: it feels like there's they've heard the noise from the
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: fan base that getting to the playoffs is being around
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: five hundred and getting to the playoffs is is not enough,
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: and I think they decide like, hey, we're gonna we're
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: gonna do this. We're gonna go all in and and
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: see where it puts us.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: It's gonna be an exciting year ahead, looking very very
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: best to you in terms of with you guys with
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: the NFL, but also college football as well, and let's say,
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: if this team gets to the big time, we'll do
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: a quick hit from Radio Row for this podcast.
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we will, for sure, We'll see Yeah.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: Thanks so much more for your time.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: Thanks man. I appreciate it, lat I really do. This
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: is an honor to come on here. You've been incredible
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: to us and I appreciate it always.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Irish Airline aer Lingus will proudly serve as the presenting
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: partner of Steelers Ireland twenty twenty five. Airlingus's growth in
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: North America continues in twenty twenty five as the airline
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: prepares to fly to two new US destinations, Nashville and Indianapolis,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: using its new Airbus eight three twenty one xcel Or aircraft.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: This brings the number of Transatlantic routes operated by the
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: airline from Dublin, Shannon and Manchester to twenty four. Steelers
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: fans traveling to Ireland for the big Game can enjoy
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a relaxing journey when they fly with their Lingus.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Air Lingus, You're very welcome.