ARCHIVOS MR PLAYBOOK (2008)

NFL IN MEXICO

Its been interesting to see how the General Managers of several teams have been addressing this situation, some teams have already added mexican born players to their rosters, so that their fan base in Mexico can increase, being Marketing geniuses, they know what adding mexicans to their teams mean.

Some examples of mexicans that have already signed lately with NFL teams are Rolando Cantu, who is currently an offensive lineman on the Arizona Cardinals, Ramiro Pruneda, who is also on the O-Line of Kansas City Chiefs (the guys who open roads for Larry Johnson), there was also a well known LB in the Texans Practice Squad, Eduardo Castaneda. So you can already see that teams are making these efforts, and the coaches over here in Mexico are the ones who are also pushing them harder and harder so they become better players for the future, hopefully in the NFL. Coach Frank Gonzalez of Borregos Salvajes is already well known around the league, and teams come to him for advice on mexican players.

I hope that someday we can maybe see an NFL franchise in Mexico, Canada and why not even London?

Here are a few extracts from an article I found on the USA Today about how the NFL is constantly looking to expand its borders, and is currently being heavily attracted to Mexico and Canada.

"For clubs close to Mexico, marketing across the border goes hand in hand with appealing to burgeoning Hispanic communities in their own cities.

"They get almost a double benefit," said Mark Waller, the NFL's senior vice president of marketing and sales. "They grow the fan base in the local market. At the same time, they build a second fan base in the international market."

So many people travel back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico and have family and friends in both places that when a resident of either country starts rooting for an NFL team, it can resonate across the border."

"Of Mexico's population of about 105 million, almost 20 million people are familiar with the NFL, Gonzalez-Soberanes said. There are 3-4 million core fans, who tend to be educated men aged 18-34, many of whom have traveled to the U.S.

Research shows that football is the second most-watched sport in Mexico behind soccer, Gonzalez-Soberanes said. The NFL doesn't expect to overtake soccer in popularity, but it doesn't have to."