If you ever hear the word “football” in Mexico, it’s more than likely in reference to “fútbol” — or soccer — and not to the other North American sport, which is instead known simply as “Americano.”
Traditionally, the National Football League (NFL) hasn’t merited the same kind of reverence among Mexican fans as it has for those in the United States. But that’s starting to shift in recent years, with the NFL’s increased efforts to reach a Latin American viewership culminating with the recent announcement of Bad Bunny — the Spanish-speaking pop star from Puerto Rico — as the Super Bowl’s coveted half-time performer.
In fact, Spanish-speaking fans are the NFL’s fastest growing audience, with Mexico ranking as the largest international market for the NFL, with a reported 39.5 million fans (Brazil ranks second, followed by Germany, China and the United Kingdom). The league’s growth across the border is largely due to strategic initiatives meant to engage Latinos — particularly Mexicans — through ongoing, creative marketing campaigns rooted in Mexican culture and fandom.
For starters, the league has played four games in Mexico City dating back to 2005, when the first NFL regular season game took place at Estadio Azteca. The 2005 game was the first ever NFL game played outside of the U.S., and drew a record-breaking 103,467 fanatics.
Surprisingly, the earliest records of the NFL’s attempts to play in Mexico go much further back to 1968 — for a pre-season clash that was scheduled between the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions that actually never came to be. In 2026, the NFL has declared they will return to Mexico City after the FIFA World Cup in 2026.
The NFL’s fan engagement in Mexico hasn’t only been limited to playing games on the field, though. Earlier this year, the league partnered with six Kentucky Fried Chicken locations throughout the nation to offer an NFL-themed dining experience (I visited the San Francisco 49ers site in the suburbs of Mexico City; many enthusiastic fans flocked there to take selfies with the museum-like memorabilia, which included a gigantic team helmet and a completely decorated building that was visible from the adjacent freeway).
Most recently, “Hasta La Muerte” — the NFL’s latest collaboration with Mexican fans and artists — once again highlighted the league’s interest in their neighbors to the south. The colorful and festive series included limited-edition clothing and merchandise (created by Mexican designer, Atrapaluz), custom NFL altars, catrinas, and a massive party in Mexico City hosted by NFL México. The campaign involved 10 NFL teams — the Arizona Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers, and San Francisco 49ers — each with their own legacy of Latino fandom.
The designs feature classic Dia de Muertos elements like cempasuchil petals, bright colors, papel picado, and calaveras. The graphic print style was inspired by Mexican illustrator José Guadalupe Posada, and plays on the idea of fandom as a tree of interconnected family members.
The work was led by an all-Mexican team — most notably, the designer himself, Atrapaluz, who was tasked with designing the artistic vision for 59 original items. Raised in the state of Mexico, he notes that the NFL’s popularity has grown signficantly in his lifetime, and that it is a way for families to connect.
“The idea was to highlight how in a family-centered country like Mexico, the NFL and its teams are passed down from generation to generation, becoming a symbol of identity for many families, a tradition for getting together and a way to keep our loved ones alive when they’re gone,” he says.
It was all on display at a special event that took place in October at Fronton Bucarelli in Colonia Juarez for an estimated 2,000 attendees, including a range of influencers and local figures like Caro Diaz, Brayan Skabeche and Karen Tapia. Anna Laura Ramirez was one of the many Mexican NFL fans who attended the event. Ramirez flew into CDMX from Veracruz, and has been a fan of the Cardinals because of her father’s fandom of the team.The Arizona franchise (who are coincidentally also Atrapaluz’s favorite team) became the first NFL team to play a regular season game in Mexico in 2005, making them a popular choice among today’s Mexican fans.
Each of the ten NFL teams in attendance collaborated with fans to make unique ofrendas, where fans could add photos of family members, friends, and even former players who are no longer living.
“Although a lot of brands are now creating products around Día de Muertos, we tried our best to stay true to our reasons for making this,” says Atrapaluz. “To represent our tradition in the purest and most sincere and respectful way possible, [to share] our stories and give NFL fans in Mexico a way to celebrate and remember their loved ones who loved the game and created a legacy.”
The NFL shows no signs of switching up their playbook. If anything, they’ve continually increased their offensive surge into the Latin American market, with more and more games being hosted not only in Mexico, but in Brazil. They’re now even blitzing Spanish-speaking audiences outside of the American continents, too, with a 2025 regular season game between the Dolphins and Washington Commanders scheduled for Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, Spain on November 16.
Alan Chazaro is the author of “This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album,” “Piñata Theory” and “Notes From the Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge” (Ghost City Press, 2021). He is a graduate of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley and a former Lawrence Ferlinghetti Fellow at the University of San Francisco. His writing can be found in GQ, NPR, The Guardian, L.A. Times and more. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, he is currently based in Veracruz.
