NFL in Mexico City: 'Real fans' hope offensive chants stop

Martin Rogers | USA TODAY

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MEXICO CITY – Some of Mexico’s most ardent fans of the National Football League are hoping to make a difference during Sunday’s match-up between the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders.

By urging silence.

To be clear, the appeal for quiet will only be at certain times, namely parts of the game when some groups of supporters might usually adopt a homophobic chant that has spread from Mexican soccer.

“If it continues,” local student and Patriots fan Didier Jackson, 20, said, “the NFL might stop coming here.”

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For major soccer games, either featuring the biggest clubs in Mexico’s Liga MX competition or its national team, a rumble from the crowd begins every time the opposition goalkeeper prepares to take a goal kick. As the player approaches the ball it rises to a crescendo and as he makes contact, a unified cry of “puto” rings out.

The word has a varied meaning in Spanish, but is considered deeply offensive by many in the LGBTQ community. A year ago, when the Raiders beat the Houston Texans in an entertaining Monday night battle, the chant was adopted by sections of the crowd for field goal attempts, punts and some kickoffs.

“The real fans want it to stop,” Jackson, who watches games on television with a small group of other Mexico City-based Patriots each weekend and has had Sunday’s clash marked on his calendar for months, said. “We know the NFL is sensitive to bad publicity. We waited a long time to get games here. We don’t want them to go away.”

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Jackson plans to actively speak to other fans in his section of the stadium if they begin to chant and urge them to cease.

The NFL’s Mexico push is a financial no-brainer given the level of support for “Futbol Americano” in these parts, particularly among a young, middle class demographic. Arturo Olive, director of the NFL’s Mexico office has promised that the matter will be “addressed” for this year’s game.

That is likely to take the form of signs displayed at the famed Estadio Azteca urging a respectful approach, but from the league’s point of view, controlling an entire crowd of 72,000 – tickets sold out in an hour – is no easy task.

Signs and slogans were erected before Mexico played the United States in a World Cup soccer qualifier earlier this year. It did little good, and left the Mexican soccer federation facing another fine from world governing body FIFA.

Cyd Ziegler, founder of Outsports.com, wrote this week that he would watch with interest to see how CBS, which will broadcast the game, handles the chants.

“Whether CBS broadcasts these slurs on American airwaves is up to them,” Ziegler wrote, noting that ESPN claimed to have been taken by surprise last year. “This time around CBS cannot claim to be unaware of the impending actions by Mexico fans.”

And last year, it seems, it was not only local fans who were heard chanting. “Bud” Black, a Raiders fan from Stockton, Calif., has made the trip to Mexico for a second straight year.

“You can kind of get caught up and start chanting it before you realize what you are doing,” Black said. “I wasn’t the only American doing it. Then I heard it on replay when I got home and I was like ‘hmm, not great.’ Hopefully it stops.”

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