Thread: The 49ers and Cardinals will play in Mexico....

NFC notes: Making history in Mexico


Week 4 preview: Mexico, perfect teams highlight games
AFC notes: Handle the football with care
(Sept. 27, 2005) -- It's Mexico, it's the regular season, and it's history in the making!

For the first time in its illustrious 86-year history, the NFL will play a regular-season game outside the United States. On Oct. 2, the Arizona Cardinals will host the San Francisco 49ers in Mexico City, Mexico, at an Estadio Azteca that has been reconfigured to hold 85,000 fans (ESPN/ESPN Deportes, 8:30 p.m. ET).

The NFC West clubs will renew an old rivalry -- they first met in 1951 -- in a new setting, as passionate fans of "Fútbol Americano" get ready to make history.

"Mexico is the country with the most NFL fans outside of the United States," says NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. "Our fans in Mexico are knowledgeable and passionate and they are ready for this next step. The Cardinals and 49ers play in markets with large Hispanic communities, including many people of Mexican decent. This game will generate new excitement both in Mexico and in Hispanic communities throughout the United States. It promises to become a milestone in the NFL's history as a global sport."

Perhaps few understand the passion of Mexican fans more than Raul Allegre, who spent nine years as a kicker in the NFL, helping the New York Giants to a victory in Super Bowl XXI. The native of Mexico is expecting a festive, knowledgeable crowd that is eagerly anticipating their first taste of regular-season action.

"There is a more than 100-year history of American football in Mexico and a true love of the sport," says Allegre, the analyst on the ESPN Deportes telecast of the game. "I think the crowd will be part of a very festive environment that is anxious to appreciate and celebrate the NFL and looks forward to being a part of this historic occasion."

The NFL has developed several programs to nurture the sport among Mexican youth, including the NFL Gatorade Tochito program, a free non-contact league for boys and girls that reaches more than 100,000 children age 8 to 18 in Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara and Puebla.

A look at some prominent Mexicans in NFL history:

Anthony Muňoz -- In 1998, the Cincinnati Bengals' great was the first player of Mexican ancestry elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Tom Flores -- Was the first person ever to earn a Super Bowl ring as a player (Chiefs, Super Bowl IV), assistant coach (Raiders, Super Bowl XI) and head coach (Raiders, XV).
Joe Kapp -- Quarterbacked the Minnesota Vikings to a berth in Super Bowl IV.
Jim Plunkett -- Earned Most Valuable Player honors in Super Bowl XV, leading the Raiders to a championship.
Tony Casillas -- Defensive tackle helped the Dallas Cowboys win consecutive championships in Super Bowl XXVII and XXVIII.
Max Montoya -- Four-time Pro Bowl guard played in two Super Bowls with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Raul Allegre -- Enjoyed a nine-year career as a kicker, leading the Giants in scoring in 1986 and helping the club to a victory in Super Bowl XXI.

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Apparently Jim Plunkett is a Mexican name. Hell, if a guy named Vladimir Zworkin is Mexican (see an earlier post - hilarious) I guess anything's possible.

Apparently Paul Tagliabue agrees with NAFTA and G.W. Bush. But notice these are teams from majority-Latino states as well.

Futbol Amexicano. Get used to it. !Viva Los Patriots!

Will tickets be cheaper in Mexico?

http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/st ... 8542c.html



Security is tight at a Mexico City shopping mall where San Francisco 49ers cheerleaders posed for photographs. Several Mexican sports stars and their relatives have been the victims of kidnappings. The 49ers play the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday night in the 90,000-seat Azteca Stadium.

Marcos Bretón: NFL putting 49ers on fútbol's turf
By Marcos Bretón -- Bee Sports Columnist


Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, September 30, 2005
MEXICO CITY - Like a shoulder-padded army, the NFL has descended on this ancient city of Diego Rivera murals and Aztec ruins, bent on selling its brand to a Mexican audience both feared and revered by gringos who market violence on the gridiron but worry about the safety of their 300-pound behemoths here.

You can't exactly call it "Fear and Loathing in Mexico City," but there is tight security and there are Holiday in Hell-sounding travel advisories following the National Football League delegation on its first regular-season game played on foreign soil, a Sunday contest pitting the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals.

Why Mexico? Why now?

Because in the 11 years since the NFL played its first exhibition game here, this city (20 million-plus metro population) and this country (106.2 million) so linked to the United States by economy and blood has developed an insatiable appetite for all things American. Residents are drawn nearer by fiber optics and video-recording cell phones and have come under the spell of Starbucks and Home Depot.

So when Hank Williams Jr. screams on television: "Are you ready for some football!?" the NFL is banking on millions answering: SÃÂ*.

"This is a historic game," said Raul Allegre, the former New York Giants place kicker and Mexican-born football analyst for ESPN Deportes. "I think Mexico earned this game with their support of football, for the way they turned out for (seven previous exhibition) games." (In 1994, for example, the Houston Oilers and Dallas Cowboys drew 112,376 at monstrous Azteca Stadium - the largest crowd ever to see an NFL game.)

Since then, modern scoreboards and overflow seating for media have shrunk capacity at Azteca Stadium to 90,000, but that hardly matters. By Thursday, more than 65,000 tickets had been sold and organizers expect the rest to be snatched up by Sunday, though in some ways, the game seems secondary to the NFL.

The 49ers and Cardinals have lost a combined five of six games in the young season. So in reality, this game is about throwing an NFL-styled cross-block at long-haired soccer players who rule the sports scene here. It's about putting a hurt on a soft fan base already tepid about baseball. It's about leg-whipping basketball before it gains any more momentum in the Spanish-speaking world.

It's also about getting millions of Mexican kids in the habit of buying NFL-sanctioned hats, jerseys and T-shirts. And it's about the NFL proving it lives by the Mafia don's credo of always making money for its partners. ESPN, for example, is pushing its ESPN Deportes network hard.

So why not throw a real jolt into the Spanish-language 24-hour sports network by broadcasting live from Azteca Stadium - the sporting nerve center of Mexico and Central America - with a real, live NFL game?

Why not make new business partners happy, like the Mexican cell phone giant, Telcel, by busing a gaggle of 49ers cheerleaders out to an upscale mall on Wednesday so hundreds of Mexican shoppers could have their pictures taken with real, live Gold Rush cheerleaders - all the while being encouraged to buy Telcel phones.

"They're so beautiful," crooned Daniel Galan, a 22-year-old Mexico City native, after getting some cheerleader autographs.

Himself a cellular phone salesman, Galan was drawn to Wednesday's event by a passion for the 49ers first kindled when he was a niño, way back when his football heroes - 49ers immortals Joe Montana and Jerry Rice - were winning Super Bowls

"Right now, football is more popular than baseball here. And basketball," Galan said.

Galan's buddy, 23-year-old Cesar Saldaña, nodded in agreement but admitted he's not down with football. He was there to see statuesque cheerleaders, and the ploy worked. In dreadlocks and a blue backpack reminiscent of any kid you'd see at the Arden Fair mall, Saldaña the non-fan is now intrigued enough to watch Sunday's game.

Though with tickets between $25 and $85, Galan and Saldaña glumly said they were priced out and would watch on TV. And in truth, Mexico City residents will barely get a glimpse of NFL players as the two teams won't arrive until tonight and will be under close watch by NFL security, local security and the U.S. Embassy here.

Players and media are being encouraged not to stray far from their hotels, not to frequent popular tourist spots, not to take taxis. Though NFL officials say the advisories come from the embassy and don't represent a sense of fear within the league, some media members joked this week that the NFL was acting as if the game were being played in Beirut, not Mexico City.

Still, safety concerns are not unreasonable. Just days ago, Ruben Omar Romano, the Argentine-born coach of a first-division Mexican soccer team, was rescued two months after being kidnapped at gunpoint by five men outside his team's practice facility here.

Previously, the father of Jorge Campos - formerly the goalkeeper for the Mexican national soccer team - was also kidnapped by armed men seeking to extort a rich, well-known victim. The elder Campos also was released unharmed, but kidnapping and extortion have continued to plague the families of athletes in Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela.

Declining to comment on security concerns, Michael Williams - the 49ers' director of marketing - did say team players and coaches were not expected to bring family members.

"We're going to get them in and out quickly," Williams said. "This is a business trip and these guys are coming here to do a job."

The 49ers' primary objective, besides winning, is to forge a stronger bond with Latino fans, Williams said. And if this week is any judge, the NFL is finding a willing and young audience drawn closer to the United States by technology and 24-hour sports channels.

One of them is Jorge Alberto Banda, a 15-year-old Mexico City high school student, who plays defensive back on his school team, and showed up at Wednesday's event with the 49ers cheerleaders in his game jersey and scuffed, yellow helmet replete with battle scars from Banda going helmet to helmet with adversaries.

"I love the aggression, I love hitting people," said the tall and lanky Banda. "It's just the best sport, and I hope to play it when I go to college,"' he said. "Soccer is still No. 1 here, but football is growing really fast."