Raptors de Naucalpan (English: ''Naucalpan Raptors'') are an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team based in

Naucalpan Naucalpan, officially Naucalpan de Juárez, is one of 125 municipalities located just northwest of Mexico City in the adjoining State of Mexico. The municipal seat is the city of Naucalpan de Juárez, which extends into the neighboring municipal ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. The Raptors compete in the

Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional The Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (Professional American Football League), commonly known simply as LFA, is a professional american football spring league in Mexico, founded in 2016. Starting with four teams, the LFA has since expanded t ...

, the top American football league in Mexico. The team plays its home games at the Estadio José Ortega Martínez. Despite never winning an LFA title, the Raptors are the only team to have reached playoffs every season.

History

The team was founded on 4 November 2015 and is one of the four charter members of the

Rafael Duk era (2016–2017)

In their first season, the Raptors finished second in the league with a 4–2 regular season record, qualifying for the Tazón México I. The team, though, lost the league's championship 13–29 to the

Mayas The Maya peoples () are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical reg ...

. The Raptors led the North Division on the 2017 season, qualifying for playoffs with a 5–2 regular season record, led by League MVP, QB

Bruno Márquez Bruno Daniel Márquez Albarrán (born 21 September 1989) is a Mexican professional gridiron football quarterback for Raptors de Naucalpan of the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA). He played college football with Pumas CU before joini ...

. In the divisional game, the team lost to the newcomers

Dinos In the typology of ancient Greek pottery, the ''dinos'' (plural ''dinoi'') is a mixing bowl or cauldron. ''Dinos'' means "drinking cup," but in modern typology is used (wrongly) for the same shape as a ''lebes'', that is, a bowl with a spherical ...

, despite their opponent having a losing record.

Guillermo Gutiérrez era (2018–present)

In 2018, Guillermo Gutiérrez replaced Rafael Duk as head coach. Also, the team switched from the

Estadio Jesús Martínez "Palillo" The Estadio Jesús Martínez "Palillo" is a multi-use stadium located in the Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City in Mexico City. It is currently the home of the Mexicas of the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA) and Guerreros de Xico of the ...

to the

Estadio José Ortega Martínez The Estadio José Ortega Martínez also known as Valley Bowl Stadium, is a stadium of football with capacity for 3,700 people located in Naucalpan, State of Mexico, campus Lomas Verdes Universidad del Valle de Mexico. The stadium is the hom ...

, in

State of Mexico The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...

. The Raptors qualified to the playoffs as second in the North Division with a 3–4 record. In a rematch of the 2017 game, Raptors defeated 21–6

in the divisional game, earning a spot in the Tazón México III. The team lost its second Tazón Mexico game, 0–17 to the

Mexicas The Mexica ( Nahuatl: , ;''Nahuatl Dictionary.'' (1990). Wired Humanities Project. University of Oregon. Retrieved August 29, 2012, frolink/ref> singular ) were a Nahuatl-speaking indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers o ...

. In

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, the team dominated the North Division, finishing with a 6–2 (5–1 in the division) regular season record. After defeating the Fundidores in over time at the divisional game, Raptors qualified for their third

Tazón México The Tazón México (English: Mexico Bowl) is the annual championship game of the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional, the highest level of professional American football in Mexico. As with the Super Bowl, Roman numerals are used to identify each ...

, and the second in a row. Raptors lost the championship against the

Condors Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. They are: * The Andean condor (''Vult ...

16–20. This was the third Tazón Mexico loss for the team and the second in a row. The 2020 season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the Raptors had a 4–1 record at the moment of the suspension of the season. The 2021 season was also cancelled. In

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

the Raptors finished the regular season as the fourth ranked team with a 4–2 record, qualifying to the playoffs, where they were eliminated by the Fundidores on the semifinal 27–30 with a touchdown pass from

Shelton Eppler Shelton Eppler is an American football quarterback for the Fundidores de Monterrey of the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA). Eppler was a three-year letter winner at Navasota High School in Navasota, Texas. As a junior, he was named t ...

to Tavarious Battiste on the last play of the game.

Rivals

Dinos de Saltillo

The

Dinos de Saltillo Dinos de Saltillo (English: ''Saltillo Dinos'') are an American football team based in Saltillo, Mexico. The Dinos compete in the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional, the top American football league in Mexico. The team plays its home games at ...

and the Raptors play each season the so-called Jurassic Duel (Spanish: Duelo Jurásico). Due to these teams being two of the strongest in the league in recent years, this rivalry is considered amongst LFA's most important rivalries.

Stadiums

In 2016, for the inaugural season of the LFA, all of the four founding teams (

Eagles Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

and Raptors) played all their matches at the

, in the

Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City The Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City is an Olympic Park which was used during the 1968 Summer Olympics. Found in the area of Mexico City known as the Magdalena Mixhuca, the park continues to serve as a venue for cultural, social, worship and sport ev ...

. For the 2018 season, Raptors moved from "Palillo" Martínez stadium to the

, the stadium has a capacity of 3,700 spectators and it is located inside the

Universidad del Valle de México The Universidad del Valle de México (UVM) is a private university founded in 1960 and one of the largest university systems in Mexico. The school enrolls more than 120,000 students, and has approximately 11,900 faculty members and 6,900 staff e ...

Lomas Verdes campus and it is regularly used by the university's

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

team, the Linces. In 2019, the team moved from the Estadio José Ortega Martínez to the field of the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

Acatlán campus, also located in Naucalpan and used by FES Acatlán's

team: Pumas Acatlán. The cause of the movement has not been disclosed nor by the team or the league. Raptors returned to the Estadio José Ortega Martínez for the 2020 season. Despite the fact that the team is branded as being from

, Raptors played their home matches for the two first seasons in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

and they only moved to Naucalpan for the 2018 season.

Roster

Staff

Season-by-season

Awards

* North Division ** Champions (2): (2018, 2019)

References

{{Naucalpan Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional teams Sport in Naucalpan American football teams established in 2015 Sports teams in the State of Mexico 2015 establishments in Mexico