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Elijah Arroyo Takes Pride In Mexican Heritage, Proud 'To Put On For The People Of Mexico'

Seahawks tight end Elijah Arroyo spent some of his youth in Mexico learning the basics of football, what it means to be a team player and now is “very, very proud” to represent the people of Mexico in the NFL.

Miami tight end Elijah Arroyo poses for a portrait at the NFL football scouting combine on Saturday, March 1, 2025 in Indianapolis. (Todd Rosenberg via AP)
Miami tight end Elijah Arroyo poses for a portrait at the NFL football scouting combine on Saturday, March 1, 2025 in Indianapolis. (Todd Rosenberg via AP)

When Elijah Arroyo thinks back to playing youth football in Cancun, Mexico, he thinks about the times he, his family, and his team would travel from Cancun to Yucatan, Mexico, which is about a three-and-a-half-hour drive. He remembers traveling all that way to face off against a very good football team, the Tigres, or Tigers, in English.

"They became our rival team because they were the best team in the conference other than us. We'd have to travel over the country."

Although it's how good the team was that sticks with him, it's the playing conditions that he remembers more.

"The field was crazy," Arroyo said. "It wasn't even grass. It was just rocks and dirt. There were stray dogs walking through the field. The parents were picking up broken glass, like beer bottles off the field before the game."

Despite the conditions of the field, the teams would face off and it was the draw of two good teams playing each other that eventually led to real change.

"I think by my last year, I played there five years in a row, by my last year, it had gotten better, and they had somewhat fixed it up," he said. "We were the ones who brought the attention to that field for them to be able to fix it up."

Arroyo smiles thinking back on the time he spent with his football teammates turned friends. When he was young, he and his family packed up to move from Miami to Cancun, to be with his father who was there selling timeshares.

"I had just started playing football before I moved down there," Arroyo said following the draft earlier this year. "So that was my biggest concern as a seven-year-old moving to a different country. I asked my mom if they had a football team and they said yes, they found me a football team. So, I was cool with it."

Arroyo would go on to learn to basics of football in Mexico, and as a young, impressionable athlete, his sense of who he is as a football player stems from his time in Cancun.

"I feel like those early years is really what built my confidence up as far as being a football player," he said. "Those are the early years of ball, so that's when you figure out who you are as a player, and your strengths and weaknesses. I feel like that's really just where my confidence comes from, just playing [in Mexico]."

Along with learning plays and aside from being the player who did, "get the rock most of the times," Arroyo realized that playing for his teammates was more rewarding than playing for just himself.

"Being down there really molded me into being a selfless team player," he said. "Just being able to play for my guys, playing for the guys next to me. It just meant so much more rather than just focusing on individual stats."

He added, "That was the first real brotherhood that I was a part of. Just being able to build a relationship with those guys. It's the same thing as being in the locker room now. It's just something that I would never want to be away from."

The time he spent playing in Mexico and Arroyo's Mexican heritage, "Means a lot," he said. "Especially being able to have a Mexican last name, being able to put on for the people of Mexico and just knowing that I represent something bigger than myself. It's something that makes me very, very proud."

Check out photos of the Seahawks 53-man active roster for the 2025 season.

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