PHOENIX — Jose Beltran lives and bleeds sports.
Since he was little, he played basketball, baseball, and football. The latter has been his favorite.
As a Valley native, he is “loyal to the soil,” so his favorite team is the Arizona Cardinals.
Beltran is among the more than 31 million Latino fans of the sport. A fanbase that’s grown twice as fast as all fans since 2010.
“The growth is really coming from the NFL’s approach to how they target and communicate with Latino fans,” said Orlando Ávila, the marketing director for the Arizona Cardinals. “You become a fan of the sport when you’re playing it.”
Ávila said the League has pushed and moved forward with initiatives, campaigns, and grassroots programs to grow its fanbase. They have focused on introducing the sport at a young age through flag football—which is an affordable option for more families, he added.
“The hope is that there is going to be more of an attraction to football because [they’re] able to play it, see it, and participate in it more,” Ávila said.
The NFL has also grown its fanbase by taking the sport internationally. In 2005, the first game in Mexico was played between the Cardinals and the 49ers. Arizona won.
Seventeen years after that first regular season game was played, the fanbase in the Aztec country has exploded, with an estimated 46 million more fans there.
“In Mexico alone, [football] is second to soccer,” said Javier Rodriguez, Arizona Cardinals’ manager of international marketing. “We don’t take that for granted. It’s not just understanding the language; it’s understanding the culture.”
The Latino love for the sport doesn’t translate to the field. Of the 1,700 players in the league today, the NFL tells 12News that about 20 identify as Latino. That’s a slight increase from 2021, when that number was 12.
“For me, it’s been a dream come true,” said Rolando Cantú. “It’s been a blessing to have the NFL in my life.”
Cantú is one of the few Latino players that’s made it possible. In 2005, he became the first Mexican player who trained in Mexico’s college system to become an active player in the NFL.
He’s now the Cardinal’s manager of international business and is part of a growing movement that has expanded the Latino fanbase as the lead analyst for Sunday Night Football with Telemundo Deportes—which made history last year, when it aired the first Spanish-language Super Bowl broadcast on a U.S. Network.
“Once you offer that sport in Spanish, in a way you can also relate to what the play-by-play is doing and what the caller guy is doing, then there’s an instant connection for Latinos,” Cantú said. “For me, it’s awesome to see the evolution of mixing of cultures and the mixing of words.”
Latino fans have taken notice. Beltran’s parents, who primarily speak Spanish, have “recently started getting into football once they started understanding the rules,” he said.
With more than 62 million Latinos in the U.S., those who are part of the small number within the NFL hope there aren’t only more Latino last names on the back of jerseys, but more coaches, trainers, and league staff representing Fútbol Americano.
“As a Mexican, you want to see more people of color from all walks of life, on the field, on the sidelines, in the office, and I think it’s important and something we need to work towards,” said Ávila.
By 2050, 53 million Latinos are expected to be NFL fans.
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