Isaac Alarcón had time to recognize that, as a American football player, he was bad with his hands. He began playing at age 14 as a closed wing (attack and reception position), but when he arrived at the university, at 18 he remembers, “They told me: you have some terrible hands, do not catch anything, we feel that the best thing for you is that you are offensive linr That changed my life, ”he says.
A position that until now plays in the field, as a player of the San Francisco 49ers. “Sometimes as a linus you do not have much recognition, you are like the hero without a cape, you dedicate yourself to open the hole to the corridor or protect the corridor to throw the pass. I effort myself for someone more shining and I feel that it is a life lesson for me: many times you do not have the recognition, but that does not mean that you are not a person who has value,” he acknowledges.
But this ‘hero without a layer’, as he is named, has faith that one day he can be part of the roster of the 53 NFL players.
Shared passion
His beginnings in sport were in adolescence when his father, after working, took Isaac and his brothers to play American football to a field located in Fuentes del Valle, in Monterrey, Nuevo León, where he is originally from. “Outside the countryside there was a river that passed by, it had super big trees that covered the entire stadium. In my mind I saw it as the sky, going to train that place,” he says.
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He is sure that his love for sport was born for his father, whom he considers his first cheerleader. “He stayed (to practice) even though he was super tired of his work, he had two, and back to the house I remember that it was always: ‘How did they feel? How did they feel?
Isaac also has another passion: cars. He studied Automotive Design Engineering, at the Tecnológico de Monterrey and was part of the sheep, the American team of the same university, but his great dream is to be able to play on the grill or roster of 53 players, that is, those who will be active and will be selected for the NFL meetings.
The dream: the NFL
He made his jump to the NFL in 2020 when he joined the Cowboys de Dallas, through the International Player Pathway Program, however, he faced various challenges such as adapting to a professional level and being far from his family.
“You come from sheep, you feel a person that the team depends on me, a person where if you are not in the field, you are not playing, then it was difficult, however, I feel that I could have very good memories like knowing what happens inside the locker, practice with them as players, help them prepare for Sunday,” he details.
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In his last year, they wanted to change his offensive linee to defensive lining, a position in which, he recognizes, he did not go so well.
“They ended up cutting off the team after the Training Camp, when the season starts, I spent it all year (2023) out of the NFL and I thought that my sports career had already ended,” he says.
Alarcón confesses that he mentally did not feel prepared to say goodbye to football. “There were many mental struggles and in my heart I didn’t want to say goodbye to sport, that’s why I last so long trying. I stayed in the United States all that time, I looked for coaches, I talked to my agent what I could do. Every week I had at least a dream that I returned to the team, I missed everything,” he says.
However, in January last year the 49ers decide to give it a chance. “Thank God I could stay in the team, in the practices squad, they liked my work that they wanted to sign,” he says.
And in January 2025 his contract with San Francisco was renewed for one more year.
Now his philosophy in the game is: “If it is a very good season, do not let the euphoria win you, that can also happen. If it is a very low season, do not let it depress you because that will also happen, I feel that that helped me a lot in those months,” he says.
Of the biggest challenges that he has faced within San Francisco, he has been fighting the stigma of being Mexican, not going from an American school and has not been active in the roster.
“They judge you as in everything, you have your curriculum and based on that we evaluate what kind of person you are; I do not charge with that curriculum, so my letter of introduction I have every day in the field and that was how little by little I was gaining the respect of my coaches and my classmates, who consider that I must stay in the team one more season,” he says with enthusiasm.
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Alarcón still believes that he has not achieved its maximum potential, so he will continue to prepare with the clear objective in mind: make the roster of the 53.
His dad remains his number one cheerlead and reminds him of the importance of keeping his feet on the ground and being humble. “(He tells me) that he does not let any of that climb my head, that in the end when all the noise, the interviews, the cameras, the applause, we all end up on four walls, your house, your room, and there is no noise.
