ESPN's Hannah Storm talks Monday Night Football in Mexico City

When the NFL airs a game from a place where it hasn't played in over a decade, a number of familiar faces will be there to guide viewers thanks to a large contingent of ESPN personalities the network sent. In addition to Chris Berman hosting Countdown in Mexico City with Trent Dilfer, Matt Hasselbeck, Randy Moss and Charles Woodson on Sunday, on Monday, Berman and Suzy Kolber will co-host the two-hour Monday Night Countdown pregame show from Estadio Azteca.

The list, which is available in full here, also includes Hannah Storm, who flew down to host SportsCenter Face to Face. She spoke to For The Win on Friday about her trip - while in a car on her way to the airport.

What are you expecting from this game? What are you expecting the atmosphere to be like and the fans and the whole experience?

Well, I got a real window when I was in Rio [for the Olympics]. I was working side-by-side with a lot of our South American broadcasters, and several of them are based in Mexico. So from word of mouth, they were telling me and I've heard a lot about this too, that Mexican sports fans are insane for American football. I mean so the fact that, if you look at this game, it sold out almost immediately - which is pretty crazy.

There were renovations done on their locker rooms. They are four Mexican sports channels that are partners with the NFL. And there's so many games now that are broadcast in Spanish - there are millions and millions of fans. So this isn't like a 'oh let's go down there and see how it will be received.' There's a huge fan base down there.

So I think it's really exciting. There was a regular season game there back in 2005, but this is is the first-ever Monday Night Football game, so the fact that it's that one game, the only game that's on on Monday night and it will be from Mexico City, I think that's really cool. It has a historical feel to it.

The game comes less than two weeks after the election. What effect, if any, do you think that will have?

You know it is about sports and - I have no idea what will happen down there, I don't think anybody does in terms of if there will be any sort of reaction to what's happened here politically and what people will perceive as future policies that involve Mexico, so I think that's a real unknown.

But I do think the fact that it is a sporting event and I think globally what people are passionate about globally, it pretty much comes down to sports and music.

People around the world love their sports and they love their music and those seem to be the two things that transcend politics, for the most part. I think that the really cool thing is that Tommie Smith is going to be down there. And the fact that Mark Davis brought him down there to light the Raiders' torch. I think it's so amazing that he's coming back to Mexico City, where he raised his gloved fist in the 1968 Olympics and was one of the forefathers of social activism.

And the fact that we've come to a place where we've got social activism in sports, front and center, I think it's really cool. For me, that comes full circle. That brings the past and the present together in a really interesting way.

What else are you looking forward to in the game or your trip? Sightseeing?

No, I won't have time go sightseeing. I'm excited, Anthony Munoz is my guest on Sunday and I've been really looking forward to having him. I think this has been such an interesting year. I went when the President … and MLB went to Cuba, I hosted our coverage for that. I hosted our coverage from Rio. So I feel like this is sort of another global sporting event, something that transcends the boundaries of what we do normally in terms of our coverage - which is obviously heavily domestically oriented - I do feel like at least this year, and for me being fortunate enough to be part of [what's been] the globalization of sports. And while in a sense if you look worldwide and you're talking politically, there's a shift back from globalization, in sports it's the other way.

I'm really really excited. Cuba was an incredible experience, so was Rio and I think Mexico City is going to be the same way. I'm excited to see fans in another country … to see them wearing jerseys. I know the Cowboys and the Steelers are their most popular teams but the Raiders and the Texans have huge followings. I'm a Texans fan because I used to be an Oilers fan so I adopted the Texans, so that to me adds another sense of cache to this.

And then the fact that the Raiders are relevant again in the NFL is huge and it's great for the league. And you have two division leaders that are playing in a big game, so it even becomes bigger because it's a significant game. This isn't a game between two teams that are struggling, this is a really really important game - it's a great Monday Night match-up.