Tommie Smith returned to the city of his Olympic raised-fist podium salute, and he couldn’t help but think back to the 1968 Mexico City Games.
Smith lit a torch before Monday night’s NFL game between the Oakland Raiders and Houston Texans in the Mexican capital. It’s a Raiders tradition for a torch to be lit before every home game honoring longtime owner Al Davis, who died in 2011.
“Looking back, that distance, sometimes the brain doesn’t go back that far,” Smith said on ESPN earlier Monday. “Only time does. But it was time for change. The changing is still happening, and, hopefully, we’ll change in a progressive manner.”
Smith was visiting Mexico City for reportedly just the second time since the 1968 Olympics.
“This is like a second home for me,” Smith, a Raiders fan, said on ESPN. “Where my other life started.”
Monday’s game was played at the Estadio Azteca, which hosted not track and field but the men’s soccer final at the 1968 Olympics.
MORE: Two U.S. track and field athletes in line for medals after DQs
The fire that burns the brightest in the Raiders organization is the will to win.
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) November 22, 2016
Olympic champion Tommie Smith lights the torch in Mexico. https://t.co/EocNkNKEoB