NFL makes big push to woo Hispanic fans and players to game,
■ The Hispanic NFL fan base has exploded, but only 16 of 1,696 players are Hispanic. The league and Hall of Fame lineman Anthony Munoz aim to change that. Jennifer Lopez, Shakira will perform in a Super Bowl halftime show aimed at Latinos.
Anthony Munoz, one of the greatest offensive linemen in NFL history, is still an imposing figure at 61 years old and continues to impact the league with his mission to attract more Hispanics to the sport of football.
Although the Hispanic NFL fan base has exploded — 28.7 million Hispanic-Americans consider themselves fans of the league, according to an ESPN poll — only 16 of the NFL’s 1,696 players last season were of Hispanic origin. That is just less than 1 percent, not much higher than when Munoz retired in 1993.
Munoz is determined to get Hispanic youth to fall in love with the NFL, like he did. What better place to do that than Miami during Super Bowl week?
The 6-foot-6 Mexican-Amertime ican Hall of Famer spent Tuesday morning at the Miami Beach Convention Center, surrounded by 300 predominantly Hispanic youth from local schools as part of the NFL Play 60 Character Camps, a national program he started with the NFL more than a decade ago. The goal of the camps is to teach football and character skills, and at the same
expose the sport to Hispanic children whose families are typically more interested in soccer and baseball.
“When I was playing from 1980 to ’92, there were very few Hispanics in the league,” Munoz said. “The crazy thing was for 10
years we [the Cincinnati Bengals] had left tackle Munoz, right guard [Max] Montoya. I was from 40 minutes out of L.A. and he was from 20 minutes out of L.A. I went to USC and he went to that other school in L.A. [UCLA].
“Most of the Hispanics were kickers — Rafael Septien, the Zendejas brothers, Frank Corral. A lot of people don’t remember Jim Plunkett and Joe Kapp from the Vikings from before I got into the league.
“As the years went on, you had Tony Gonzalez, Roberto Garza, and others. I think it’s a great opportunity for young people to see, ‘OK, maybe this is a sport that I might not think that I can play, but we’ve had a few guys so, it can be a dream of mine being a Hispanic.’”
The NFL is also doing its part to reach out to the Hispanic market. They have played a game in Mexico’s Estadio Azteca since 2016. Wednesday night, the league scheduled an event called 100 Anos 100 Momentos (100 Years, 100 Moments) to celebrate the contribution of Latinos in the NFL. The Super Bowl has been broadcast in Spanish on Fox Deportes the past six years. The bilingual halftime show will feature Puerto Rican-American pop star Jennifer Lopez and Colombian singer Shakira.
“We are so happy to be in Miami, the Latino media capital of the world, and this is perfect place to tell this story of Latinos and the NFL,” said Javier Farfan, the NFL Cultural Marketing Strategist. “We have to be culturally relevant. Seventy percent of the population in Miami-[Dade County] is Latino.
“As you think about our fan base continuing to grow and look at the future, the growth is going to come from the Latino fan. The halftime show — we partnered with Roc Nation and Pepsi to pick these two Latina women because they talk about the spectrum of who a Latino is in this country. One sings in Spanish, another sings in English. One born here, one born in Colombia.”
The Dolphins, one of the teams with the largest Hispanic fan bases, have a Spanish Twitter account called @LosDolphins. They also include Spanish content on their website. They had a player take salsa lessons at Little Havana club Ball and Chain. They had players in the Three Kings Parade.
“We are constantly looking for ways to reach out to our multicultural community,” said Laura Sandall, the Dolphins vice president of marketing. “We make sure that our marketing and video content has a Hispanic flair to it. We have big fan bases in Mexico and Brazil, too.”
The first known Hispanic to play in the NFL was halfback Ignacio “Lou” Molinet, a native of Chaparra, Cuba, who went to Cornell and played nine games for the Frankford Yellowjackets in 1927. Other pioneers were Jesse Rodriguez, a fullback-punter with the 1929 Buffalo Bisons; Kelly Rodriguez, a halfback with the Yellowjackets and Minneapolis Red Jackets in 1930-31; and Waldo Don Carlos, a center with the 1931 Green Bay Packers.
The first Hispanic quarterback was Tom Flores with the Oakland Raiders in 1960, who went on to become the second Hispanic head coach when the Raiders hired him in 1979. Tom Fears (Saints, 1967-70) was the first Hispanic NFL coach.
“The main reason the Hispanic kids don’t think about football is the generations before them didn’t,” Munoz said. “I was baseball. My grandfather from Chihuahua played semi-pro baseball, so I was introduced to baseball and played baseball, but then I started playing flag football. It’s about what the parents like and watch on TV. If we develop more Hispanic fans, their kids will be more likely to play.”
Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Michael Davis agrees. Davis’ mother, Ana Martinez, is Mexican. He identifies as Mexican and speaks fluent Spanish. He was one of the few Hispanic kids from his Los Angeles neighborhood who gravitated toward football.
“When I was growing up, we went to Mexico twice a year to visit family, and I always played soccer there with my cousins,” Davis said. “I always liked soccer, but being in school with all the Americans, I wanted to play American football. I wasn’t sure it was possible for Mexicans or other Hispanics to be in the NFL.
“Sure, maybe you could be kickers. I didn’t want to be a kicker. I wanted to play defense or offense, be different. For me, being a Mexican football player has been a great experience because I’m able to reach out to other Mexicans and Latinos and those who want to play football and show that anything’s possible. Doesn’t matter what race or ethnicity you are.”
Davis is in Cancun this week doing outreach events with Mexican Chargers fans. He said most coaches, teammates and fans don’t realize he is Hispanic.
“People see my name, Michael Davis, and they don’t assume I’m Mexican,” he said. “Obviously, if you see me and see my skin color, I am of dark complexion, so people assume I’m straight AfricanAmerican. But the truth is, I look exactly like my Mom, just darker skin.”
Most of Davis’ followers on social media are Latinos.
“On my Instagram, the first thing I say is `I’m Michael Davis and I’m Mexican’. I always post pictures of my Mom. I like to put my culture out there to be a role model.”
The other Hispanic players in the NFL in 2019: Miami native Eddy Pineiro (K, Chicago Bears), former Miami Dolphin Kiki Alonso (LB, New Orleans Saints), former Dolphin Kenny Stills (WR, Houston Texans), Corey Bojorquez (P, Buffalo Bills), Jon Feliciano (G, Buffalo Bills), Max Garcia (G, Arizona Cardinals), Zane Gonzalez (K, Arizona Cardinals), Will Hernandez (G, NY Giants), Ziggy Hood (DT, New Orleans Saints), Blake Martinzez (LB Green Bay Packers), Robert Quinn (DE, Dallas Cowboys), Rakeem Nunez-Roches
(DL, Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Rigoberto Sanchez (P, Indianapolis Colts), Andrew Sendejo (S, Minnesota Vikings), and Alejandro Villanueva (OT, Pittsburgh Steelers).
Munoz and Davis both feel the primary reason there are so few Hispanic NFL players is because of old stereotypes and cultural traditions.
“I don’t think lack of size is the reason,” Munoz said. “We had a 5-11 outside linebacker at USC Ed Gutierrez who was one of the toughest guys I ever played with. It’s societal. We had a couple big linemen at USC. If they could get away from stereotyping and putting certain cultures in a box, we’d have more Latino players. I said, `The heck with this, this is something I love so I’m going to do it.’ I didn’t listen to all the noise about size or culture.’’
Davis had a similar experience growing up in Southern California.
“There are stereotypes about Mexicans and Latinos, a stigma,” he said. “Mexicans are supposed to be cleaning or doing hard labor, not playing in the NFL. I knew a lot of good athletes who were Mexican, but they didn’t actually believe they could make it to pro football and they were not encouraged.
That’s why when we played in Azteca Stadium, I was grinning from ear to ear with pride. All my family and other Mexicans could see that it’s possible to be Hispanic and play in the NFL.”
More than 30,000 Hispanic kids have attended the NFL-Munoz Play 60 Character Camps over the years. More often than not, Farfan and Munoz said, they leave with life lessons and as NFL fans.
Twelve-year-old twin sisters Brianna and Bianca Nagy of Miami Lakes K-8 school attended the camp Tuesday. Their father is a Dolphins fan, but they didn’t know much about the NFL.
“This is a really good idea because it encourages more Hispanic people to watch and play football because now it’s mainly American people who play,” Brianna Nagy said. “We are going to root for the Dolphins now.”