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Latinos are the fastest-growing fanbase in the NFL. What's the league's playbook?
Fans cheer before an NFL football game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs in Mexico City in 2019. The NFL plans to play as many as eight international games beginning next season. The NFL’s two largest international markets are Mexico and Brazil,
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Rebecca Blackwell/AP
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.
Raul Allegre (2), shown here attempting a field goal against the Philadelphia Eagles in 1987, is the most decorated Mexican-born kicker in NFL history. He won two Super Bowls as the star booter for the New York Giants in 1987 and ’91 en route to a nine-season career.
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G. Paul Burnett/AP
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 Los Angeles Rams high-powered passing combination, probably football’s best, gets together at Redlands, Calif., as the NFL titleholders began drills July 23, 1952. From left: quarterback Bob Waterfield and ends Elroy Hirsch and Tom Fears.
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Harold Filan/AP
“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.”
Members of the Cincinnati Bengals offensive line include wide receiver Steve Kreider (86), right guard Max Montoya (65) and left tackle Anthony Munoz (78) during an NFL game in 1981.
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AP
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.
The flags of Mexico and the United States cover the field before an NFL football game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs Nov. 18, 2019, in Mexico City.
Eduardo Verdugo/AP
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Eduardo Verdugo/AP
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.
The Carolina Panthers’ Dave Canales, the league’s only Latino-heritage head coach, talks to referees before an NFL game against the Denver Broncos in October.
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Jack Dempsey/AP
“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.
Kansas City Chiefs running back Isaiah Pacheco runs the ball against the Las Vegas Raiders in an NFL football game last month in Las Vegas.
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Jeff Lewis/AP
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’ Isaiah 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.
New York Jets guard Alijah Vera-Tucker during an NFL game against the Denver Broncos in October. Vera-Tucker, from Mexico, is one of several players being filmed going back to their hometowns and retracing their journeys.
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David Zalubowski/AP
“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.
Detroit Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone (34) and Honorary captain Diana Flores, Flag Football Ambassador, on the sideline before the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept. 15, 2024.
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Rick Osentoski/AP
“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.
President Trump announced a three-week extension of a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon that had been set to expire in a few days, after hosting a meeting between Israeli and Lebanese diplomats at the White House on Thursday.
Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that has been attacking Israel from southern Lebanon, did not have representatives at the meeting and did not immediately comment on the announcement. The prime minister of Israel and the president of Lebanon also did not comment.
A successful peace agreement would hinge upon Hezbollah halting attacks, which Lebanon’s government has little power to enforce because it does not control the militia. Lebanon’s military has mostly stayed out of the fighting and is not at war with Israel.
The cease-fire, which was scheduled to end on April 26, would last until May 17 if it takes effect as Mr. Trump described it. Before the cease-fire was brokered last week, nearly 2,300 people were killed in Lebanon and 13 in Israel. Since then, the number of Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah attacks have been dramatically reduced, though the two sides have continued exchanging fire.
The Lebanese Ambassador to the United States, Nada Hamadeh, credited Mr. Trump for extending the cease-fire, saying that “with your help and support, we can make Lebanon great again.” Mr. Trump replied, “I like that phrase, it’s a good phrase.”
Asked about the potential of a lasting peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon, Mr. Trump said that “I think there’s a great chance. They are friends about the same things and they are enemies on the same things.”
But Lebanon and Israel have periodically been at war since Israel’s founding in 1948. Israel has invaded Lebanon for the fifth time since 1978, incursions that have destabilized the country and the delicate balance of power between Muslim, Christian and Druze communities.
In the hours before the president’s announcement on social media, Israel and Hezbollah were trading attacks in southern Lebanon, testing the existing cease-fire.
Mr. Trump said the meeting at the White House had been attended by high-ranking U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the U.S. ambassadors to Israel and Lebanon.
Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli strike near the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh killed three people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Hezbollah claimed three separate attacks on Israeli troops who are occupying southern Lebanon, though none were wounded or killed.
Hezbollah set off the latest round of fighting last month by attacking Israel soon after the start of the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. Israel responded to Hezbollah’s attacks by launching airstrikes across Lebanon and widening a ground invasion of the country’s south.
Smoke rises from Port of La Guaira in Venezuela on Jan. 3, 2026 after U.S. forces seized the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro and his wife.
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Jesus Vargas/Getty Images
Federal prosecutors on Thursday unsealed an indictment against a U.S. Army soldier, accusing him of using his insider knowledge of the clandestine military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January to reap more than $400,000 in profits on the popular prediction market site Polymarket.
The Justice Department says Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, who was stationed at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, was part of the team that planned and carried out the predawn raid in Caracas earlier this year that resulted in the apprehension of Maduro.
The Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed the actions against Van Dyke, the first time U.S. officials have leveled criminal charges against someone over prediction market wagers.
According to the indictment, Van Dyke now faces counts of wire fraud, commodities fraud, misusing non-public government information and other charges.
Trading under numerous usernames including “Burdensome-Mix,” Van Dyke allegedly traded about $32,000 on the arrest of Maduro, resulting in profits exceeding $400,000.
“Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York. “Those entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets have a duty to protect them and our armed service members, and not to use that information for personal financial gain.”
Van Dyke’s defense lawyer is not yet publicly known. Polymarket did not return a request for comment.
The charges against Van Dyke come at a sensitive time for the prediction market industry, which has been growing exponentially, despite calls in Washington and among state leaders for the sites to be reined in.
Van Dyke is the first to be charged in the U.S. for suspected Polymarket insider trading, but Israeli authorities in February arrested several people and charged two on suspicion of using classified information to place bets about military operations in Iran on Polymarket.
The Senate early Thursday morning adopted a Republican budget blueprint that would pave the way for a $70 billion increase for immigration enforcement and the eventual reopening of the Department of Homeland Security.
Republicans pushed through the plan on a nearly party-line vote of 50 to 48. It came after an overnight marathon of rapid-fire votes, known as a vote-a-rama, in which the G.O.P. beat back a series of Democratic proposals aimed at addressing the high cost of health care, housing, food and energy. The debate put the two parties’ dueling messages on vivid display six months before the midterm elections.
Republicans, who are using the budget plan to lay the groundwork to eventually push through a filibuster-proof bill providing a multiyear funding stream for President Trump’s immigration crackdown, used the all-night session to highlight their hard-line stance on border security, seeking to portray Democrats as unwilling to safeguard the country.
Democrats tried and failed to add a series of changes aimed at addressing cost-of-living issues, seizing the opportunity to hammer Republicans as out of touch with and unwilling to act on the concerns of everyday Americans.
Here’s what to know about the budget plan and the nocturnal ritual senators engaged in before adopting it.
Republicans are seeking a way around a filibuster on D.H.S. funding.
The budget blueprint is a crucial piece of Republicans’ plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security and end a shutdown that has lasted for more than two months. After Democrats refused to fund immigration enforcement without new restrictions on agents’ tactics and conduct, the G.O.P. struck a deal with them to pass a spending bill that would fund everything but ICE and the Border Patrol. Republicans said they would fund those agencies through a special budget bill that Democrats could not block.
“We can fix this with Republican votes, and we will,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and the Budget Committee chairman. “Every Democrat has opposed money for the Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great peril.”
In resorting to a new budget blueprint, Republicans laid the groundwork to deny Democrats a chance to stop the immigration enforcement funding. But they also submitted themselves to a vote-a-rama, in which any senator can propose unlimited changes to such a measure before it is adopted.
The budget measure now goes to the House, which must adopt it before lawmakers in both chambers can draft the legislation funding immigration enforcement. That bill will provide yet another opportunity for a vote-a-rama even closer to the November election.
Democrats used the moment to hammer Republicans on affordability.
Democrats took to the floor to criticize Republicans for supercharging funding for federal immigration enforcement rather than moving legislation that would address Americans’ concerns over affordability.
“This is what Republicans are fighting for,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the Democratic leader. “To maintain two unchecked rogue agencies that are dreaded in all corners of this country instead of reducing your health care costs, your housing costs, your grocery costs, your gas costs.”
Democrats offered a host of amendments along those lines, all of which were defeated by Republicans — and that was the point. The proposals were meant to put the G.O.P. in a tough political spot, showcasing their opposition to helping Americans afford high living costs. Fewer than a handful of G.O.P. senators crossed party lines to support them.
Republicans blocked Democrats’ proposals to address high living costs.
The G.O.P. thwarted an effort by Mr. Schumer to require that the budget measure lower out-of-pocket health care costs for Americans. Two Republicans who are up for re-election this year, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, voted with Democrats, but the proposal was still defeated.
Republicans also squelched a move by Senator Ben Ray Lujan, Democrat of New Mexico, to create a fund that would lower grocery costs and reverse cuts to food aid programs that Republicans enacted last year. Ms. Collins and Mr. Sullivan again joined Democrats.
Also defeated by the G.O.P.: a proposal by Senator John Hickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado, to address rising consumer prices brought on by Mr. Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran; one by Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, to require the budget measure to address rising electricity prices, and another by Mr. Markey to create a fund to bring down housing costs.
Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who is up for re-election in Georgia, also sought to add language requiring the budget plan to address health insurance companies denying or delaying access to care, but that, too was blocked by Republicans.
Republicans sought to amplify their hard-line messages on immigration, voter I.D. and transgender care.
While Republicans had fewer proposals for changes to their own budget plan, they also sought to offer measures that would underscore their aggressive stance on immigration enforcement and dare Democrats to vote against them.
Mr. Graham offered an amendment to allocate funds toward a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to the apprehension and deportation of adult immigrants convicted of rape, murder, or sexual abuse of a minor after illegally entering the United States. It passed unanimously.
Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, sought to bar Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion and other services, and criticized the organization for providing transgender care to minors. Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, also attempted to tack on the G.O.P. voter identification bill, known as the SAVE America Act. Both proposals were blocked when Democrats, joined by a few Republicans, voted to strike them as unrelated to the budget plan.
The Republicans who crossed party lines to oppose their own party’s proposals for new voting requirements were Ms. Collins along with Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski also opposed the effort to block payments to Planned Parenthood.
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