Raúl Allegre arrived in Washington state from Torreón, Coahuila, in 1977 as a high school foreign exchange student. The school's football coach immediately noticed the Mexican fútbolero, who had an aptitude for using his foot. That season, as a senior, Allegre learned how to kick a football for the first time.
Historically, Mexican immigrants haven't always embraced the U.S. pigskin sport, known in Mexico as simply "Americano." Even rarer? That a teenage Mexican citizen in the 70s would have any desire — let alone pathway — to play in the National Football League.
Allegre went on to become the most decorated Mexican-born kicker in NFL history, eventually winning two Super Bowls as the star booter for the New York Giants in 1987 and '91 en route to a nine-season career.
Though he wasn't the first Mexican-born player to suit up on the gridiron — that was Tom Fears, a wide receiver from Guadalajara who led the league in receptions after being drafted to the Los Angeles Rams in 1948 — Allegre was certainly one of the very few to make it across the border and onto the field.
"The NFL hadn't internationalized back then," says Allegre. "Today, the market in Mexico and Latin America is enormous. That didn't exist in the '70s when I was growing up. There were some Latinos like Tom Flores, Max Montoya, Anthony Muñoz. But even then, many of the Latino players didn't register as Latinos."
In 2024, that's no longer the case. The NFL is beginning to shift its league's perception — formerly as one of American pride, militarism, and rigid conservatism (see: the backlash on Colin Kaepernick's infamous kneel in 2016) — to one of global inclusivity, community values and mindfulness (see: the Washington Commanders changing their franchise name and logo in 2020). It hasn't been a perfect transition, but it's clear the NFL is seizing an opportunity to re-brand and reach more fans, especially outside of the States.
In November during an NFL game in Germany, commissioner Roger Goodell stated the league would like to play as many as eight international games beginning next season. Currently, the NFL's two largest international markets are Mexico and Brazil, with a reported 39.5 and 35.9 million fans, respectively. Germany, China and the United Kingdom round out the top five, each with less than 20 million supporters.
In terms of overall viewership growth, Latinos lead the way. League sources confirmed Latino viewers (both English- and Spanish-speaking) have spiked by 11%. Spanish broadcasts alone have jumped 34% compared to previous years. Those numbers are good enough to outpace any other demographic of measurable fan growth.
This Christmas, Netflix México has announced its first-ever live stream of NFL games. So what happened between the time when Allegre first took aim at the uprights as one of the few Latin American-born players of his day until now — when multiple Latino-heritage players, as well as a diverse array of Spanish-speaking fans, have joined the NFL's ranks?
NFL en español
The NFL hasn't always translated easily to fans outside of the States. In fact, it required an entirely new vocabulary to be learned by non-English speaking audiences.
Fernando Von Rossum is credited with literally translating the game for Spanish-only fans. Throughout 60 years, he announced NFL games for Mexican broadcast networks. Von Rossum's groundlaying work led to being honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Earlier this year he became the first and only Spanish-speaking recipient of the prestigious Ralph Hay Pioneer Award. In Mexico, he's viewed as the godfather of NFL fandom.
"What's a quarterback? There is no word for that in Spanish. So he called it the 'mariscal de campo'," says Antonio Ramos, a Mexican-born broadcaster in Spanish for the Carolina Panthers. "A fumble? That's 'balon suelto.' He basically tropicalized every NFL term without losing its essence, so we could understand it and make it our own."
In an era when the NFL didn't have much of a global presence, Von Rossum expanded the game's accessibility for Spanish-speaking fanatics. He's the reason football became more familiar, and more interesting, to generations of Latin Americans, including both Ramos and Allegre.
Unlike the U.S., where English-language NFL games are shown multiple times a week, Spanish-speaking fans haven't traditionally had that viewership luxury. To put things in perspective, Telemundo became the first Spanish broadcast network in the U.S. to air the Super Bowl exclusively in Spanish. That was in 2022.
Since then, the NFL has inked multiple deals with Spanish-speaking networks, and regularly airs games in Mexico and countries throughout Latin America. The league even hosts annual games in places like Mexico City and São Paulo, Brazil.
Ramos never imagined that as a child. He could only watch certain games on special occasions and says he learned the rules of football by playing NFL Madden — the popular video game franchise — as a teenager in Mexico. Now, Ramos is six seasons into his career with the Carolina Panthers (a team that, coincidentally, boasts the league's only Latino-heritage head coach in Dave Canales, as of this writing). Though backing the Panthers might still be an aberration in Mexico (most fans cheer for legacy teams like the Dallas Cowboys or Pittsburgh Steelers), Ramos' is adamant the league has made significant strides to reach a new generation of foreign NFL proponents like him.
"I feel like [Latino appreciation] is real now. It's not just Hispanic Heritage Month or treated as a joke," says Ramos. "Teams are really investing in stadium production and the community like I've never seen, not just marketing with a few advertisements or social media posts in Spanish. This is constant and permanent and you see Latinos have more of a voice now. It's genuine."
Today's NFL is "Por La Cultura"
For the modern sports fan, watching the NFL — let alone any league in any country — is more attainable than ever. With the internet, social media apps, and a slew of streaming services, fans no longer have to be stateside to know who Aaron Rodgers or Lamar Jackson is. This accessibility has allowed the NFL to reach a larger Spanish segment.
Since 2019, Javier Farfan has been the quarterback — or, el mariscal de campo — overseeing a massive push to highlight the league-wide spectrum of Latinidad.
A New York-raised Ecuadorian-American, Farfan initially joined the NFL as their Global Brand and Consumer Marketing Consultant. For Latino-heritage players and fans — whether Spanish-speaking, English-speaking, or bilingual — having Farfan lead the charge has been game-changing.
With "Por La Cultura" — a marketing gambit initiated by Farfan that celebrates mixed-heritage and international players like the San Francisco 49ers' Fred Warner (a Mexican-American All-Pro linebacker whose birth name is Federico) and the Kansas City Chiefs' Isiah Pacheco (a Puerto Rican running back who snagged his first Super Bowl last season) — the NFL's ambassadorial efforts are reaching a historic level of Latino amplification.
In their 2023 video series, "Hometown Heroes," Latino players like Colombian-American Christian Gonzales and Mexican Alijah Vera-Tucker are filmed going back to their hometowns and retracing their journeys. This season, the league introduced "Cross-Border Pride," where select players flew to visit their families and fans in Brazil, the Caribbean and Mexico.
"Pacheco going back to Puerto Rico was a blessing. He was able to see his grandparents for the first time in 10 years," Farfan says. "Football has allowed him to connect with his heritage."
Outside of that, the league implemented an International Player Pathway program in 2017, which produced Mexico's Isaac Alarcon and the Dominican Republic's Bayron Matos, among others. It's a far cry from the days of players like Chad Ochocinco — a flamboyant wide receiver born Chad Johnson, who, to be clear, has absolutely no Latin heritage, but legally changed his last name to incorrectly spell out his jersey number, 85. Unironically, Ochocinco brought more attention to Latinos in the NFL than Latino players themselves — because there weren't many to do so.
Now, there are over 40 players of Latino descent currently on the field. That's the most-ever, going back to 1927 when Cuban-born quarterback Ignacio "Lou" Molinet debuted for the Frankford Yellow Jackets as the first Latino athlete in the pre-merger NFL.
It's not just about centering NFL players' experiences, though. More than anything, the league's efforts seem targeted at casual fans and future Latino participants with initiatives like Latino Youth Honors, Mundo NFL, 'Tochito' (or, flag football), and the International Games.
"We're fueling this from a grassroots perspective," says Farfan. "Flag football in the [2028] Olympics is going to be a big moment for us. It's helping to reinforce that engagement, especially as Latinos. The NFL has made efforts to work with community centers to sanction and support flag football games [abroad] for 20 years. The output of that is a Mexican star, Diana Flores. That's the amount of impact we've been able to see. We're reinforcing and supporting that journey [with] flag football in indigenous communities in Mexico."
The NFL has even partnered with niche Mexican streetwear brands and local artisans for "Orígenes," a design project to spotlight creative fandoms beyond the border. It seems to be paying off.
"We did a lot of work to go after Spanish speakers. There have been more games than ever before in Spanish," Farfan says. "Their perception of the game, the teams, and the league itself has increased significantly. They're more likely to follow our channels to learn more. We're creating an ecosystem of support with other people and folks to tell that story. That's the strategy. Creating an ecosystem. Having that conversation about players and fans who have those experiences."
For Farfan, Ramos, Allegre, and countless others, the NFL is finally becoming more of what they've always dreamt of: a National Football League that finally includes more Latinos.
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