I kept my eyes on the security guards who patrolled the stands and tried not to glance up too many times at the teocalli that towered above the stadium. The temple, dedicated to the sun god Huitzilopochtli, rose in a series of stepped levels just beyond the eastern end zone of the playing field—the end zone that was defended by the Tenochtitlán Jaguars. The late-evening sun shone through the sprawl’s smog cover, painting the temple’s stonework a lurid red. I could occasionally see movement on one of the temple’s upper balconies—the flash of a turquoise-feathered cape or the glint of gold as sunlight reflected off the huge golden ear plugs of one of the priests who stood in attendance there. I raised my binoculars and pointed them at the temple as yet another priest emerged from the darkened interior of the teocalli . . .