CNN Español
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When you think of Cancun, the first thing that comes to mind is its paradisiacal beaches and a good vacation or relaxation time. However, for Elijah Arroyo It was synonymous with vocation and sacrifice. The first steps of a career that is very quickly giving him the chance to go down in sports history.
Far from the white sand or crystal clear waters, the 22-year-old young man born in Orlando, Florida, forged his destiny in the fields of dirt, stones and broken glass of Mexico, where he arrived when he was just seven years old with his family, of Mexican roots on Elijah’s grandparents’ side.
He spent six years in Cancún, during which he reaffirmed that his vocation was American football, a sport that had begun to interest him when he was still in the United States. In fact, he says that, at the time of packing his bags, the dream of shining with the oval ball had a guaranteed place: “I don’t remember it personally, but my mother told me that I asked if they played American football there,” Arroyo said during an interview with CBS when he was still a young project of the University of Miami Hurricanes.
Precisely, it was those performances with Florida that earned him the second-round selection in the 2025 Draft by the Seattle Seahawks. However, Arroyo knows where his path to the NFL began. “Most of what I learned about American football, I learned it first in Spanish,” he said about his stay in Mexican lands. “It meant a lot.”
Arroyo took his first steps with the Cancún Trojans in conditions that were far from the glamor promised by high-performance centers in the United States. There wasn’t even grass there, just dirt, and in the best of cases, because in others you also had to clean up the stones and broken glass before the games.
But that experience, which could discourage more than one, ended up forging the character of this player who stands out in the tight end position: “Playing there turned me into a team player, someone who thinks first about his teammates and not just about statistics.”
“Those first years are where you really build your confidence as a player. There you discover who you are on the field, and for me, that was born playing in Mexico,” reaffirmed the Seahawks rookie.
Furthermore, Mexico is part of his identity off the gridiron: he revealed to the press that he watched “El Chavo del 8” and that his favorite dish is tacos al pastor.
In his first year in Seattle, Arroyo played 13 games, four of them as a starter, and had 15 receptions for 179 yards, meaning he averaged more than 10 yards for each pass he received. He also already had the pleasure of scoring his first touchdownon November 2 against the Washington Commanders.
Like every tight end, the Orlando-born stands out for his physical bearing and agility, essential conditions to fulfill the double function that the position entails: unmarking himself to receive passes and acting as a blocker to protect the quarterback or running back on duty.
Those qualities made him an important piece in Seattle’s path to the NFC title, at least until his injury late in the regular season. He was recently activated for the duel against the Rams, although he did not participate, partly due to the inactivity he had just before a game as close as the one the Seahawks played against the Los Angeles team.
Now, he’ll have a chance to shine in the biggest game of all. The one where everyone wants to play, but where even some historical stars have not been able to reach.
Super Bowl LX, which will be played this Sunday, will have a marked Latin American accent, and not just because of Arroyo. The New England Patriots have the Venezuelan Andrés Borregales and Christian González, of Colombian roots. All of them know very well what it means to take their surnames, from countries with little or no significance in this particular sport, to the most important match of the year.
“Having a Mexican last name, being able to represent the people of Mexico, makes me feel like I represent something bigger than myself. It’s something that fills me with pride,” says Arroyo. So much so that he has already promised that he will fly the Mexican flag if his team ends up winning the Vince Lombardi trophy.
This Sunday, far from the dirt and stones, on the grass of Levi’s Stadium and under the lights of the greatest show that American sports can offer, Arroyo will seek to immortalize his name in American football and raise the Mexican flag before the eyes of the entire world.