Many Mexican sports fans have brought a habit of screaming gay slurs during sporting events, something the has become aware of after having playing several games in NFL Mexico City. However, as the Raiders played the Patriots on Sunday, CBS was able to use a crowd noise sound effect to drown out the fans yelling “puto” over and over again.
The game figured as part of the league’s attempt to export American football to the rest of the world. Other games have been played in the UK and Japan.
The chant rose every time the New England Patriots set up to punt or kick off. It isn’t assumed that the Mexican fans were calling the Patriots “puto” because they are “American patriots.” The chant was not likely a political statement. The slur was more likely chanted because the Raiders were considered the “home team” in the game. Hectoring a visiting team with the chant is a longstanding practice in Mexico.
Sports fans in Mexico have developed a bad habit of yelling the gay slur at soccer games and have stuck with the chant even in the face of hundreds of thousands in fines by soccer’s governing body, FIFA. Indeed, many involved in Mexican soccer as well as government officials have defended the practice and refused to make any effort to stop the chants despite the fines.
It wasn’t the first time American broadcasters were sent scrambling by Mexican fans yelling “puto.” Last year ESPN was supposedly caught by surprise by the chants and ended up broadcasting the yelling during the Houston Texans-Oakland Raiders game.
But this year CBS was prepared to muffle the slur with the crowd sound effect played over the top of the chants, Awful Announcing reported.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.