By the time the last week of September 2013 rolls around, you’ll be sick of seeing or hearing about “Big Ben meeting Big Ben”. The Pittsburgh Steelers will travel to London’s Wembley Stadium to play the “host”
Minnesota Vikings on September 29, 2013 at 1 p.m. EST. Ben Roethlisberger will, without a doubt, be pictured in front of Parliament’s Elizabeth Tower, which houses the giant clock and bells nicknamed “Big Ben”. The NFL announced this week that there will be two London games next year, with The Jacksonville Jaguars playing “host” to the San Francisco 49ers on October 27,nearly a month after the Steelers/Vikings game.
The previous NFL regular season games in London results:
2011 Bears 24 Buccaneers 18
2010 49ers 24 Broncos 16
2009 Patriots 35 Buccaneers 7
2008 Saints 37 Chargers 32
2007 Giants 13 Dolphins 10
The Steelers have never played a regular season NFL game outside of the United States. They have played in a total of eight International games (7 vs. NFL opponents, and one vs. the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts). Here are the results of the Steelers preseason games outside of the United States:
2008 at Toronto lost 24-21 to the Buffalo Bills.
2000 at Mexico City lost 24-23 to the Indianapolis
Colts.
1997 at Dublin, Ireland won 30-17 vs. the Chicago Bears.
1996 at Tokyo lost 20-10 to the San Diego Chargers.
1993 at Barcelona, Spain lost 21-14 to the San Francisco 49ers.
1990 at Montreal won 30-14 vs. the New England Patriots.
1969 at Montreal won
17-13 vs. the New York Giants.
1960 at Toronto won 43-16 vs. the Toronto Argonauts.(3-4 vs. NFL teams)
The 1990 game against the Patriots had been scheduled to be played in Dublin, but a lack of ticket sales forced the league to abandon the game that was
part of the old “American Bowl” preseason NFL series. The 1960 game against the Argonauts was played with a mixture of NFL and CFL rules (including 12 players per side on the field).
The Vikings lead 7-6 in the all-time regular season series, with Pittsburgh winning the last three contests in 2009, 2005, and 2001. The last time the Vikings beat the Steelers was 1995. The Steelers also beat the Vikings 16-6 on January 12, 1975 to win Super Bowl IX in New Orleans.
-Ryan Dickey (@ffbninja)
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