Photo: ETIENNE LAURENT / EFE
For: EFE Updated 12 Feb 2022, 21: 40 pm EST
The NFL organized this Saturday the Play Football Family Festival, a great event around American football for children and families and which was held in the emblematic Latino neighborhood Boyle Heights in Los Angeles (USA).
Considered the Chicano heart of the Californian city, Boyle Heights hosted this act in which about 1.500 young people, according to the estimates of the organizers, enjoyed everything that surrounds American football just one day before the Super Bowl is played at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Bowl between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Very happy with the hot day in Los Angeles, unlike his residence on the cold coast East of the US, Roman Oben, vice president of football development for the NFL, explained to Efe how they have tried to expand the passion of the Super Bowl beyond the big game.
“It was very important for us to partner with the communities of East Los Angeles and do this event because sometimes when the Super Bowl comes around to a city not everyone gets to be part of it”, he indicated.
“We want everyone to have the same experience so today we have brought the experience of the Super Bowl to these local communities (…). Everyone can be an NFL fan, not just those in the stands,” he added.
Bishop Mora High School Field Salesian was chosen by the NFL to organize this Play Football Family Festival.
Hundreds of children and young people gathered there to imagine for one day that they were professional American football players and for this they had technicians and assistants who had prepared different training exercises for them.
Thus, the little ones learned the secrets of all facets of the game, from passing to receiving without forgetting how to dribble past rival players.
Numerous parallel activities were also organized, such as American football video game competitions, autograph signings and question and answer sessions with figures from this sport, and distribution of t-shirts and posters as gifts.
Mari achis pets
The Rams, who will try to win the Super Bowl tomorrow in their own stadium, attended this family event with a notable presence, including a mariachi from the Los Angeles team.
Their rivals, the Bengals, also visited Boyle Heights with a team of cheerleaders accompanying Who Dey, the tiger that is the official mascot of the Cincinnati team.
And the other Los Angeles team, the Chargers, didn’t miss the date either, bringing a percussion band to liven up the act.
One of the young people who was at the Play Football Family Festival was Jeffrey Pérez, a student at the Bishop Mora Salesian Institute and who is very passionate about American football.
“I think this is a giant event for the community. More than anything so that people know about soccer and fall in love with the game”, he explained to Efe.
Of Salvadoran roots, Pérez said that these types of initiatives serve to “grab little children and focus them on this sport that they can love, can follow and can play when they are older.”
“What I like most about football is how united the team is, that you have to work as a team, that you have to have that brotherhood with all the players”, he closed.
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