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Meet the Bucs’ Cairo Santos, the new visitor to the land where kickers go to die

Meet Cairo Santos, who is out to break the Bucs' kicking curse
 
The Bucs signed kicker Cairo Santos.
The Bucs signed kicker Cairo Santos.
Published Nov. 14, 2018|Updated Nov. 14, 2018

TAMPA — Next victim, please.

Break out the egg timer. The Bucs have a new place kicker. Chandler Catanzaro sleeps with the fishes. The next man up is named Cairo Santos and he's the first person from Brazil to play in the NFL. He's a very nice person and quite a story.

I miss him already.

That's what happens to Bucs kickers. They come, they go. They kick, they dissolve. Kickers are the little curse inside the big Bucs quarterback curse, which is in full swing. All Bucs kickers are but the children of Capece is kaput.

Santos hopes to be different. He stood in the Bucs locker room Wednesday. Media crowded around. Someone piped up.

"Hey, guys, I'm going to put a rake in here real quick, a mic rake."

He put a stand in front of Santos. TV and radio folks placed their microphones on the stand.

"Big market here, I guess," Santos said.

The market for doomed kickers is ever thriving in Tampa Bay.

Hello, goodbye.

Catanzaro sealed his fate last Sunday, with two field-goal misses. A camera caught sight of Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter, who has already lived through Roberto Aguayo. Koetter looked as if he'd just emerged from a yearly prostate exam.

That's what kickers do to coaches, Santos, who signed with the Bucs Monday, on his 27th birthday, is working for his fifth NFL team in 15 months. The Bucs are working on their seventh kicker in the last four seasons, their ninth since the team released Matt Bryant in 2009, when the alleged curse began.

Santos said: What curse?

"I don't believe in that personally."

It's early. This is Tampa Bay, the place where kickers go to die.

This is Tampa Bay, where they make you a hero one minute, make you into dog food the next.

This is Tampa Bay, where a kicker can go from a mic rake to being handed a rake.

This is the life they have chosen, a mostly nomadic existence, save for an Adam Vinatieri here or there.

"I've had five workouts this season and it's always against the same guys, so you know each other," Santos said. "It creates a good environment. You want to compete and do well, but also help each other."

Santos, who lives in Jacksonville, knows the departed Catanzaro. They're friends. They've played golf and worked out together. Santos' heart breaks even as he stepped over the body bag. This is the life they have chosen. It's what kickers do.

"I've had five workouts this season and it's always against the same guys, so you know each other," Santos said. "It creates a good environment. You want to compete and do well, but also help each other."

Santos adds to the international flavor of Bucs kickers. He is from Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. The Bucs have had a kicker from Ireland (Neil O'Donoghue), a kicker from Cyprus (Garo Yepremian), a kicker from the Czech Republic (Mirro Roder), a kicker from Argentina (Martin Gramatica), two kickers from Nigeria (Obed Ariri, Donald Igwebuike). It has been a regular United Nations.

Santos didn't come to America until he was 15 and a foreign exchange student. He played soccer in Brazil, midfield. His hero was the great Brazilian star, Ronaldinho. He learned football at a Catholic school in St. Augustine and later kicked at Tulane.

His father, Cairo Sr., was a commercial airline pilot and a stunt pilot. He died in a crash while performing a trick at an air show when Cairo Jr. was a senior in college.

"Typically, after a kick, I like to point to the sky to thank God and dedicate it to my father," Santos said.

And now he is a Bucs kicker. The few, the proud. Actually, not so few. All eyes will be on him.

It reminds me of a funny story about the late Pete Rajecki, who kicked for the Bucs in the 1976 training camp leading up to their horrific 0-14 debut. Rajecki told media he missed some kicks because he would get nervous when Bucs head coach John McKay was watching.

McKay: "Please inform Mr. Rajecki that I plan on attending all the game."

God, I love Bucs kicking history.

One way or another, Cairo Santos is about to make some. He said he made 45-of-47 field goals during his five workouts for teams and hit all but a 59-yard try when the Bucs worked him out.

"I knew an opportunity would come," Santos said. "You're aware of what kickers are doing during the season, so you kind of know what spots might open up. You hate to see that. You end up knowing a lot of these guys on a personal level. You train together. It's part of this brutal business. It can happen to all of us. I've been cut before. I know the feeling of being the guy to get called and step up, too."

His interview done, the new Bucs kicker got ready for practice in the place where kickers go to die. The mic rack disappeared. There's never an egg timer around when you need one.