Cairo Santos’ unique journey from Brazil to Bears record-holder started with the support of 2 families nearly 4,000 miles apart
CHICAGO — Cairo Santos Sr. always told his son he would support sending him from Brazil to the United States to study English.
Santos Sr. received his pilot’s license in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and one of his main commercial airline routes was from Brasilia, Brazil, to Miami and Orlando, Fla. He took his family to Disney World and Universal Studios on several vacations.
So when 15-year-old Cairo Santos showed interest in an exchange program in large part because he wanted to see where his soccer skills could take him, Santos’ father and mother, Magalie, sent him to live for a year with the Burnett family in St. Augustine, Fla.
Fourteen years later, after first kicking a football because of a casual suggestion from his host brother, Santos holds the NFL’s longest active streak with 35 consecutive made field goals. As the Chicago Bears enter Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers at Soldier Field, Santos is chasing Adam Vinatieri’s NFL record of 44 straight.
During his time in the U.S., Santos won a scholarship to Tulane and went perfect in his junior season to win the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s top collegiate kicker. He became the first Brazilian-born player to appear in an NFL game in 2014 with the Kansas City Chiefs and in 2016 became an NFL ambassador to his home country, going on a tour to build fan interest. And he weathered a low point in his career in 2019 before seizing an opportunity with the
