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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-NFL Authentic Custom Chiefs Jersey . -- Bobby Ryan helped the U. Ben Niemann Jersey . After the whistle, Thornton skated the length of the ice, pulled Orpik to the ice from behind and punched him in the face several times. http://www.customchiefsjersey.com/custom-harrison-butker-jersey-large-2346n.html . 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GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Promoting his initiative for boys and young men of color, President Barack Obama said Tuesday that helping these males stay out of trouble and on the right path is an American challenge that will pay off for the U.S. economy in the long run.Speaking about the My Brothers Keeper program during an ESPN-hosted forum, Obama said the economy could grow about 2 percent faster if the U.S. closes documented achievement, wealth and employment gaps that often consign minorities to lives that are less stable and less financially secure.He acknowledged that 2 percent doesnt seem like a lot but said it would mean trillions of dollars of additional wealth for everybody.Young people today are the workers, taxpayers and business customers of the future, Obama said, adding that everyone will benefit if they have money in their pockets, including old heads like himself who in the future will rely on them for Social Security checks.So if theyre unemployed or underemployed, if theyre in prison, that is bad for all of us, not just for them, Obama said. This is an American challenge.Obama launched My Brothers Keeper in February 2014 to address persistent opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of color. Some 250 communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 19 tribal nations have their own My Brothers Keeper programs, the White House said.Before leaving Washington, the White House announced that Sprint Corp. will do its part to help close the digital divide by providing free tablets, smarttphones and other mobile devices, along with four years of service, to 1 million low-income, high-school students who cant get on the internet at home.ddddddddddddbama also praised the value of the nations historically black colleges and universities during the forum, which was taped at North Carolina A&T State University, an HBCU with a highly regarded engineering program. The event was hosted by The Undefeated, an ESPN website that explores the intersection of race, sports and culture. ESPN broadcast the forum Tuesday night.Obama pushed back against the notion that his administration has been insufficiently supportive of historically black colleges, which are under enormous financial pressure.He called HBCUs a foundation stone for building the black middle class and black wealth, and said he had increased federal funding to them to $4 billion annually. Obama said these schools are facing difficult financial decisions, as are non-HBCUs, because states are cutting funding for higher education.The president urged students worried about the cost of a college education to vote. If you dont vote, then you will not have any say in the decisions that are made in state capitals or in Congress about the kind of support that you receive, he said. You dont have to be an engineering major to figure out the math on this one.---Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap ' ' '