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Patrick Mahomes speaks with Cairo Santos following a preseason game in 2024. (David Eulitt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Of a nation of 220 million people, the seventh-largest population in the world, Santos is the only Brazilian NFL player.<\/p>\n
Considering soccer\u2019s standing in the country \u2014 Brazil has won five men\u2019s World Cups, more than any other nation \u2014 he won\u2019t be the only Brazilian with a big leg. So given Santos has been in the NFL since 2014, why haven\u2019t more followed his path?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was 15 and I left to come to America to play soccer, my old team (back in Brazil), I can count three or four people who were free-kick takers,\u201d says Santos. \u201cThe goalkeeper was massive for a 15-year-old, probably 6ft 5in, and could kick the ball across the field. Man, thinking now maybe American football could have worked out for them too, if they had taken the path I took.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraditionally, it\u2019s a difficult journey. NFL teams are looking at colleges to find their kickers and colleges are looking at high school players who have built experience. The journey to get to the NFL is still a little traditional in that way, that going through high school and college is still the best route to get to the pros. That\u2019s an expensive and long project for a 15-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was at that age that Santos began to grasp how competitive soccer was in his homeland as tens of millions of people play the sport recreationally.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids were dropping out of school to give it a chance,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s something my parents weren\u2019t allowing me to do so I looked to the United States to do an exchange student program for a year, dreaming of coming here to find a university that would give me a scholarship to try and make soccer a profession, but also something that would open doors for my education, values my dad had taught me.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so he moved to the U.S. from the Brazilian capital Brasilia, and began his life away from his late father, Cairo Sr, a commercial pilot and stuntman, and mother, Magalie, for the first time, attending St Joseph Academy in Florida, a private Catholic school, before completing three years at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, studying business management.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started playing soccer in Florida and my friends noticed I had a really strong kick and they convinced me, \u2018Hey man, there\u2019s a position in American football they just kick the ball really far, so come to practice and see how far you can kick.\u2019 I just wanted to do it to say that I got involved in American culture. So I go to practice, the team didn\u2019t have an out-and-out kicker and that day I made a 50-yard field goal as a sophomore in high school. Back then, they told me it was rare to see,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coach said, \u2018Number one, you\u2019re on the team. Number two, you have the talent right now to get a soccer or American football scholarship.\u2019 That lit a lightbulb in my head. I continued to play and received offers in both sports, but they\u2019re both played in the fall in college so I had to pick one.\u201d<\/p>\n
He left Tulane having set a school record with a 57-yard field goal and made 21 of 21 field goals and 26 of 27 PATs in 2012, earning him the Lou Groza Award \u2014 presented annually to the top collegiate placekicker.<\/p>\n
He went undrafted in 2014 but was signed as a free agent by the Kansas City Chiefs and on Sep. 7 that year became the first Brazilian-born player to feature in an NFL regular-season game. Around the same time, Brazilian-born Maikon Bonani was a kicker on the Tennessee Titans practice squad, but never made a regular-season appearance.<\/p>\n
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