In the last week of Hispanic Heritage month, Fox Deportes will be introduced and appreciated.
While attempting to get the scoop on Fox Deportes, especially in the NFL realm, it became apparent quickly how difficult it is to find any information. Particularly up-to-date information. For such a large, succesful broadcasting company like Fox to do such a poor job maintaining Fox Deportes is egregious. There was no scoop to be found – maybe a half scoop, or one of those kid scoops at Baskin Robbins.
What is Fox Deportes?
Fox Deportes is the longest running sports network in the industry that broadcasts programming in Spanish. Established in 1993, Fox Deportes has had six name changes (La Cadena Deportiva Prime Ticket, Prime Deportiva, Fox Sports Américas, Fox Sports World Español, and Fox Sports en Español – in order) and continues to grow in popularity.
The network covers fútbol, the NFL, baseball, auto racing, wrestling, and more. Fox Deportes does both shows on sports, and live analysis and commentary on sports.
It is difficult to stay current with updates, as only 3 Fox Deportes specific articles have been posted on the news webpage in the past year.
Fox Deportes NFL Commentators
Again, it is a bit difficult to tell who specifically commentates this game – the latest lineup available was from last year. It appears there are 6 commentators in 2022, based on the list of all Fox on-air bios.
These commentators are critical for representation and help make NFL accessible to a wider audience. A sports network needs great people to work there to last so long in the industry. Plus, many of the analysts you see below may be at the Superbowl – make sure to keep an eye out!
Pennsylvania Native, John Laguna, has been a sports analyst since 1996 – beginning his career at Fox Deportes.
Laguna is a trailblazer as he made history with Brady Poppinga, calling the first Spanish language telecast of the Superbowl in 2014.
Jorge Perez Navarro is the lead NFL play-by-play analyst for Fox Deportes. He has a long and illustrious career beginning in Mexico in 1987. He has been working with Fox for the last few years and has been commentating sports since 2000.
A prominently featured broadcaster, Rodolfo Landeros, has been working in the sports industry for 15 years.
Landeros was the principal host for all 2019 Superbowl coverage – the most viewed Spanish language broadcast of the superbowl ever. He also has hosted the five past Superbowl specials named ‘NFLeros.’
Adrian Garcia Marquez, the San Diego native, began his career calling baseball games in 1999. He has been calling sports ever since. Garcia Marquez was the play-by-play announcer for the Superbowl in 2019. Adrian also is the lead play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Chargers on Spanish-language radio.
Alejandra Delgadillo can be seen at select NFL games as the sideline reporter – most notably the 2019 Superbowl in Miami, FL.
Jaime Motta is one of the most versatile broadcaster for Fox Deportes. He is a USFL and college football broadcaster. He also was available to be the lead side reporter for the 2019 Superbowl in Miami. He has been in the sports industry for the longest period of time out of the group – since 1990!
Games covered by Fox Deportes
If you thought they would cover most games, that’s logical. And wrong.
They will broadcast nine games in the 2022 NFL season total. This includes: one preseason game, two regular season games on Thanksgiving and Christmas respectively, two wild card games, two NFC Championship games, and the Superbowl. More specific game information has not been made available at this time.
Is Fox Deportes the only network covering games in Spanish?
No, thank goodness.
All Amazon Prime TNF games will be available to stream in Spanish.
If you have an old school TV with cable, some games will have the option of Spanish audio. More information on those options and settings can be found here.
ESPN Deportes also offers Monday Night Football games through out the 2022 season.
Telemundo Deportes, a subsidiary of NBC, will host Sunday Night Football games and a few other select games through out the season.
It can already be difficult enough to navigate all the different sports broadcasting services that cover the NFL – NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, Amazon Prime, and more. Finding a game being broadcasted in Spanish is even more complicated since not all games are covered, even if it’s the same broadcasting service. What device you are streaming on can also interfere with available options. It’s unbelievably complicated.
The NFL can and should do better
What message is the NFL sending to its Hispanic viewers, if they don’t guarantee each game will be broadcasted in Spanish? They don’t value the 30.2 million Hispanic NFL fans living in the US. With the money in the league, and in the broadcasting services, it’s not a matter of if they can – they are choosing not to.
Instead of putting a accent mark over the N in NFL, do something real to honor the Hispanic community, okay Roger? Listening to feedback would be an excellent start, the eñe accent should never have stayed up after it was not well received. Making all games available in Spanish is the next step.
Hopefully the four articles honoring Hispanic Heritage Month has been informative. Bringing honor and awareness to the Hispanic greats (here), even when the NFL wouldn’t (here), and the upcoming rookie talent in the league (here). The last article of this month investigates Fox Deportes, the oldest Spanish sports network, and some things the league can do to better serve the Hispanic Community.