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In time he may reflect on all that he too has gotten from the game, including the championship win in 2016, beating the Tigres in Monterrey in front of 12,000 lusty hometown fans. The win, which remains his career highlight, came 25 years after his father won the national title with UDLAP in 1991.

His father’s career was a contributing factor when Diego started playing at age 10, after first experimenting with soccer and basketball. In four-down football, he found his game and in linebacker his position. He loves the versatility and the physical demands on his body. And he likes to hit people.

His father and mother Carla let all three of their boys grow into the sport, whatever sport it was at the time.

“Obviously (his father’s career) was an influence, but my dad and my mother always supported me in every sport we played, my brothers and I.”

Gabriel, who played both soccer and football in school in Guadalajara where he grew up, had only one stipulation to his sons, that they commit themselves to whatever they chose.

“It was never mandatory that they play football. But suddenly, they started to play and it was wonderful,” he said.

The game’s roots run deep through the Torres family. Carla, a huge fan of the National Football League, loves the sport at all levels, in part because of its impact on the lives of her sons.

“Football is the sport that is like life,” she said. “You have to be really disciplined and it is all about teamwork.

“I think it’s very important to our family because it has been the centre of many of our activities,” she said. “Fernando the oldest played, Diego plays, and Rodrigo, the little one, he used to play. Right now in college, it is all football. Every Saturday we get with friends and come to Mexico (City) or we go to Monterrey or we go to Guadalajara. And my parents come with us, so it all goes around football. When they were kids, all summer we were following them (to games) and we really enjoyed it.”