Got Passion? Meet L.U.F.A., Uruguayan’s own Football League

American Football reaching higher grounds in unexpected places.

NFL fans fiercely believe American Football is the best team sport in the world. You can’t blame them. A game that requires not only athletic conditioning, endurance and quick thinking on the field, but also demands passion and commitment so intense that players routinely risk injury to ensure the team’s success. All of that with a simple goal in mind, domination of the opponent.

Being an NBA fan during globalization times, I could spend hours debating which game is number two behind soccer in worldwide popularity. Basketball is played on every nation in the planet and the NBA accounts as the most international of the leagues with star players from 29 different countries.

Still NFL’s Super Bowl is the second most viewed sport event with more than 100 million viewers each year. Only recently we have been able to also see NCAA’s Football Championship game in Soccer dominated Latin American audiences. For a sport which is not known to be played outside North America, that is quite an impressive improvement, demand is starting to rise.

During the past 20 years, the cultural impact of the game and its influence in kids increased steadily in South America. All of a sudden you may be walking in the streets of a small town here, and you see someone in a Brett Favre jersey. An American traveler in town? Possibly; a foreign clothing donation on a municipal care center ? That is possible too. But in some countries there is something else going on, a local American Football league.

Consider Uruguay, one of the smallest markets in the South American continent, but unexpectedly and under the radar for many of us, home to an amateur American Football league of its own for the last 10 years. What it originally began as a weekend adventure for a small group of people, has evolved into “Liga Uruguaya de Futbol Americano” or L.U.F.A.

L.U.F.A.’s matches are played on Uruguayan Air Force’s compounds. With the collaboration of the American Embassy in Uruguay and donations from different institutions in the U.S. as well, they have been able to get the necessary gear to play the game and protect the players for more than a decade now.

The teams are comprised of sons of immigrants who were reared in the US, some former rugby players, a few former international academic exchange students, and the occasional Uruguayan who simply loves the game. The fact that former Uruguayan Soccer Star Jose “Pepe” Herrera that owns, plays on and coaches one the teams is all one needs to hear to understand the growth of the popularity of the sport.

The level of passion shown on each of the players on every single team is off the charts. They have the most unorthodox ways of getting their gear, instructional DVD’s and the possibility of watching the whole NFL regular season games (a US hosted Slingbox to control a TV there is one of the ways to get that done). I was actually convinced to go to my first match after I met one of the players as he picked up a football jersey at my place that I sold to him on online.

To be able to reach their maximum potential, players go through a 3 month physical conditioning process pre-season camp included. Several of the coaches have trained at College level in the U.S. and current champions Golden Bull’s own Coach Gonzalo Techera also at the professional level in Mexico. The regimen includes nutritionists, athletic conditioning coaches and physicians, all geared to insure that the team members are able to play “at the top of their game”.

It is also a matter of pride for Reperger brothers which are a key component of the always contenders “Golden Bulls”. Marcelo, the oldest of them is the starting Wide Receiver and one of the better players in the league. Despite being on his rookie season his physicality and speed is a deciding factor game after game. He also leaves his signature on the team with his focus and competitiveness.

Golden Bulls Regerger Brothers

The League is still not constituted as professional, so all players have real jobs on the side, most working full time. Practices are held three days a week with games every weekend. While the League provides ambulance service and the aforementioned physicians, there is no health insurance.

But steps are being taken to develop the League into a more professional organization. This year, staffs were hired to maintain records of box scores, and document individual play and team effectiveness. These records will build a foundation upon which the League can build as it moves into what looks to be an enviable future. Stories and legends have been happening already now an archive will be backing them up.

Much remains to be done to ensure this growth. Martin Gramatika (emblamentic NFL kicker) hosts training and development sessions in Buenos Aires for coaches and front office personnel, and Fabian Preza, LUFA’s commissioner, attended one in 2009.

National teams from Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil have annual meetings to develop a South American tournament, but not all teams participate each year. No surprise though that Argentina and Uruguay have developed a healthy rivalry! Isn’t it incredible but also kind of odd to even think about seeing a South American soccer match like environment on a football one instead? with all the traditional chants and wild crowds completely into it… You have to love that.

The next natural steps ahead for the league and its supporters are clearly not only to strengthen the sport spot into elite among the amateurs ones in the region, but to also keep earning the respect of the public and expand the fan base overall. At this pace it will not be surprising to eventually see an America’s Football Championship on ESPN in the next ten years; maybe it will end up with the prize of earning the right to get a crack of the Canadian Football League champs? Who knows what can happen though…

Soccer keeps climbing slowly but surely in U.S. soil… Football is going on a similar route on countries that have never been known to having the sport as a possibility outside American Schools or US military bases. After all, with all the gear requirements and budget that a football team has, it will never have the chance to have that same “all inclusiveness” soccer has among classes, but that shouldn’t be its ultimate goal anyway.

Just by word of mouth and gaining one fan at a time has been enough to have the current mild appreciation of the southern audiences and it’s nothing to lose attitude makes its development to go no other place than up. Maybe the NFL could borrow a page from the NBA’s Basketball Without Border’s program and finally pay attention to developing the Sport’s International talent and its communities relationships outside the US, Mexico and Europe.

With just a few sponsorships deals, but with lots of dedication and collective effort, Football is now one of the up and coming sports events in these latitudes. “Liga Uruguaya de Football Americano” will keep growing and reaching higher ground year after year and again, there is nothing to lose for it.

A win-win situation for the Sport itself and for all of us fans who now have Football as another option to go out and enjoy.

By Rodrigo Cotelo Iriart