"MADRID -- Down a quiet side street near the Plaza de España, where a crew of workers was busy setting up the Miami Dolphins Fan Zone, Alvaro Medrano Medel tended bar and waited tables at Restaurante Sebas, his family's place. The lunch crowd was rolling in for the hearty menu del dia -- 14 euros for three courses and a drink."
"Medrano Medel, 34, is the rare Spaniard who calls himself an NFL fan. He's going to the first NFL game in Spain at Estadio Bernabeu with a group of four friends, who he says became interested in the league about six years ago when they started going to Madrid's Hard Rock Cafe to watch the Super Bowl. He tries to watch NFL games every Sunday, or at least check the scores afterward."
"The Dolphins aren't his team (he chose the Minnesota Vikings because of their references in the TV show he referred to as "How I Meet Your Mother") but he says he's impressed with the "giant screen" the club has put up in the plaza nearby. He says Sunday's game (9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network) has been talked about a lot in Madrid recently, despite the fact that the majority of his family and friends just don't get his passion for the NFL."
Madrid prepared for the first NFL regular-season game in Spain at Estadio Bernabeu with a Miami Dolphins Fan Zone and public screenings near Plaza de España. Alvaro Medrano Medel, 34, works at his family's Restaurante Sebas and identifies as one of the rare Spanish NFL fans who follows games weekly. He and four friends began watching the league after Super Bowl gatherings at Madrid's Hard Rock Cafe and picked teams partly for pop-culture reasons. He praised the Dolphins' large public screen and noted that the early kickoff has been widely discussed in Madrid, though most family and friends do not share his enthusiasm.
Read at ESPN.com
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