American football’s popularity soars in Mexico

Frank Gonzalez’s small, cluttered office is on the second floor of an abandoned concrete warehouse known simply, according to the sign out front, as ‘the cave.’ It’s an environment unbefitting the winner of 13 national college football championships. Stranger still is the building’s location: on a street corner across from a park in Monterrey, Mexico, a place where football is spelled futbol and is played primarily with a round ball and a rectangular goal. But futbol americano, despite its name, is no longer foreign to Mexico, where the NFL says it has 20 million fans -- more than anywhere else outside the U.S. ‘We have a great fan base down there,’ says Mark Waller, the NFL’s chief for international marketing. ‘There’s just an increasing interest in things American.’ Which may be why Mexicans are now angling for more than just a seat in front of the television set each Sunday. They want a place on the field too. And that’s where Gonzalez comes in.