Dein erstes Forum » s a word of warning too.Theyr

MEXICO CITY -- Dressed in their classic silver and black uniforms, the Raiders players huddle before kickoff. After words of encouragement and a prayer, the teenagers finish with head butts, shoulder slaps and a battle cry: Uno, dos, tres... vamos!This is, after all, south of the border, where football has a century-old tradition, rivals soccer in popularity and millions of kids like the Raiders de Arboleda play futbol americano -- American football -- every weekend.The NFL returns to Mexico after an 11-year absence when the Texans face the Raiders in a regular season game on Nov. 21 in sold-out Azteca Stadium. For the Mexican Raiders and others across the country, football is part of Mexican sports tradition as much as soccer, boxing and lucha libre.Football gives you the chance to take your passion to the field, to hit people and not get fined, said Raiders quarterback Gabriel Anaya, 16. Maybe thats why its so popular.The NFL has around 25 million fans in Mexico, the biggest number outside of the U.S., and its base is still growing, said Arturo Olive, director of the NFL office in Mexico. The league sponsors 6,500 teams in youth programs in 27 of 32 Mexican states, and estimates 2.5 million kids play flag football in elementary schools.Eight years ago, we played in only six states and had 120 teams, Olive said. The growth has been exponential.In a country steeped in soccer culture, and one that has hosted two FIFA World Cups, the love affair with football might be surprising. But Mexico has two popular college leagues with 36 teams, a six-team professional league, and up to 10 NFL games are on basic cable each week.The local soccer league has nine games each week, and not all of them are on TV.Fans can even watch the Thursday and Monday night games at the movie theater. Soccer gets the big-screen treatment only for World Cup matches.I also used to play soccer, Anaya said, but preferred this sport.Football was introduced in the country in 1896 by Mexican students returning home from U.S. colleges. They brought back an oval shaped ball, said Alejandro Morales, a local football historian and founder of Mexicos football hall of fame. He said the first official match was played that year in the city of Jalapa in the Gulf state of Veracruz, where the students and their friends faced a team of American sailors from a U.S. ship anchored in the nearby port.Soon after, several teams were created in Veracruz and eventually the sport spread to Mexico City and local colleges. UNAM, the national state university with over 200,000 students, started playing in the 1920*s, and by the 50s, most of the Mexican colleges where playing the game that, at the time, rivaled soccer in popularity. UNAMs famed Estadio Olimpico, site of the 1968 Summer Olympics, was used mainly for football in the first decade after its inauguration in 1950.Back then, football used to share the spotlight with soccer, Morales said. Eventually that faded, because football was not seen as a business. It was played in college and they just wanted to help the students, while soccer was run by professionals.Although football fell behind soccer, it remained hugely popular. The NFL noticed and on Aug. 5th, 1978, the Philadelphia Eagles played the New Orleans Saints in a preseason game in Mexico City. Some 30,000 fans packed the home of the Cruz Azul soccer team to watch the Saints 14-7 win in the first NFL game south of the border, and only the second played outside of the U.S. or Canada.The NFL returned 16 years later, when the Houston Oilers played the Dallas Cowboys in Azteca Stadium in the first of six preseason American Bowls hosted by Mexico. The last was in 2001, when the Raiders played the Cowboys in the same venue.The first regular season game was played in 2005, when the Arizona Cardinals played the San Francisco 49ers in front of 103,467 fans in Azteca Stadium, then an NFL record. Since 2007, the league has held games annually in Great Britain -- including three each season since 2014 -- but never returned to Mexico, until now.We were ready when the opportunity presented itself, said Olive, who has run the NFL Mexico office since 2008. Now we have a commitment to be successful with a game of this magnitude.Azteca Stadium, built in 1966 and home to the popular soccer club America, underwent several renovations to meet NFL standards, including new locker rooms exclusive for the football teams, new ramps and improved communication systems. The size decreased from 100,000 to 84,000 to improve seating, and all tickets were sold out in less than two hours, Olive said.Most fans will be rooting for the Raiders, the fifth most-popular team in Mexico behind the Steelers, Cowboys, Patriots and 49ers, according to the NFL.Among them will be Anaya and his friends from the Raiders team in Arboleda, a suburb north of this sprawling metropolis.A lot of players on the team have been playing here since they were little kids and are Raider fans, Anaya said, so they are very excited about the game.---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFLCustom Los Angeles Dodgers Jerseys . There are surprises among the Vezina candidates, but most of the others are standard top-tier performers, even if the two Hart Trophy runners-ups have never been quite as good as they have been through the first half of the season. Cheap Dodgers Jerseys . All of the scoring came in the final 20:04. Lucic scored on a power play at 15:46 of the third period, when he tipped a shot over Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen for a 3-1 lead. https://www.cheapdodgersonline.com/ . -- Derrick Rose shook off poor shooting early to hit clutch shots late and Carlos Boozer had 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 104-95 preseason victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. Wholesale Dodgers Jerseys . - The Oakland Raiders re-signed offensive lineman Khalif Barnes on Friday. Los Angeles Dodgers Pro Shop .05 million next season unless Graham and the Saints subsequently agree on a long-term deal. The designation was released Monday after the deadline passed for NFL teams to use franchise or transition tags on players becoming free agents.Hawthorn great Brad Sewell has challenged the Hawks ageing stars to aim up after anointing Greater Western Sydney as the 2017 AFL flag favourites.While Sewell expects the youthful Giants to revel in their newfound status as the team to beat, the dual premiership winner admits hes unsure if the Hawks have reached an end of a golden era following the sides week-two finals exit in 2016.We really dont know, he told AAP on Wednesday as the Hawks look to also recover from the defection of former captain and Brownlow Medallist Sam Mitchell to West Coast and fellow influential midfielder Jordan Lewis to Melbourne.Theres so much unknown in this side for probably for the first time in almost a decade in that theyve lost a couple of their stars.But at the same time theyve brought in some genuine talent that has the potential to really catapult the side and get them rebounding off losing a couple of their stars.Sewell is excited by the arrival of Tom Mitchell from Sydney, especially after the young guns outstanding season for the Swans, and Jaeger OMeara from Gold Coast.The concerns will be, as they have been for the last three or four years, is that it is an ageing side, he said.But the exciting thing is that Clarko (coach Alistair Clarkson) has always been able to regenerate the talent within the team.Theres great depth and we all know the sides always had a fantastic cculture.ddddddddddddThe two guys theyve brought in are both, if not genuine A graders, then very close to it and will play for the next 10 years for the club.Sewell, who retired at just 30 after Hawthorns triumphant 2014 season - the second of the clubs three straight premierships - suspects Hawthorns veterans will be stinging after having their grand final streak broken this year.But he has a word of warning too.Theyre such a proud club of course, he said.And because there is such internal competition within the team - and there has been for a number of years - it just means that these young guys are going to keep pushing up.If the older boys arent pulling their weight and playing to their level, theyll get spat out.Sewell believes the Giants, who fell a goal shy of a grand final berth in 2016, are deserving new title favourites after Hawthorns long run as perennial pre-season flag fancies.I mean, to play as well as they did last year and theyre still so young and theyre still so young in their list, he said.Their potential for the next couple of years is huge.I get the impression theyre the type of side that are going to enjoy being the hunted. Theyre a young, brash team that seem to enjoy the confrontation and like the attention. ' ' '