Pedro Canuto puts on his pads and practices passing the football just a few hundred yards from where boats carrying tourists cruise the Amazon River into the rainforest.
As a quarterback for Manaus FA, which is considered the top American football team in the area, the 20-year-old could be playing soccer, which Brazil is famous for. But he chooses to play a sport that most people in his country know little about.
Around 200 people, including many enthusiastic fans, are waiting in the stands of Ismael Benigno Stadium for Canuto and his team to take the field. Among the crowd are members of Canuto’s Baré Indigenous family.
His mother, who sometimes walks for days into the Amazon rainforest to teach in remote villages, still attends most home games to support her son.
“If she is brave enough to do all that, how could I not do what I desire and give 100% to the sport and the city I love?” Canuto told The Associated Press at the team’s headquarters the day before their home game against Galo FA, the defending champions.
“My dream is for Manaus to one day retire my No. 1 shirt. Several teams tried to sign me after the latest season, but I don’t see myself playing anywhere else in Brazil. I want to make it here.”
Canuto and Manaus FA’s commitment to football show how much the sport has grown in Brazil over the last 20 years.
While it’s not enough to fill the 10,000-seat stadium in the Amazon, interest in the game has grown so much that the NFL will play its first-ever game in South America when the Philadelphia Eagles face the Green Bay Packers on Friday night at the NeoQuimica Arena in São Paulo—6,200 miles (10,000 kilometers) away.
According to local research group Ibope Repucom, Brazil had about 38 million American football fans in 2022, making it the second-largest international community for the sport after Mexico.
Marketing analysts say the number of American football fans in Brazil has increased by at least 10% since then. NFL games are shown on ESPN Brasil, which has been broadcasting them since 1992, and on open channel RedeTV.
The Brazilian football league that Canuto plays in is mostly featured on social media channels.
The main league in Brazil is the BFA, which includes 72 teams from the Amazon region to the south of the country, near Uruguay. This league is now in its sixth season, which will involve over 200 games across 20 states from June to December.
Teams can sign up to three players from North America, Europe, and Japan and use two of them in games.
About ten years ago, Brazilian teams rarely played in full pads, and many focused on flag football. Teams like Manaus used to have players who wore motorcycle helmets with makeshift refrigerator coils as head protection.
Players didn’t follow strict diets or concussion protocols, and getting paid to play was almost a dream. But things are slowly improving.
Accountant Renner Silva has taken on many roles at Manaus FA over the years: player, coach, director, fan, and coordinator.
“We need more gear, a proper place to train, and more support for traveling nationwide during the regular season. But one of our biggest challenges in attracting more players and fans is the heat,” Silva said while players practiced at Manaus’ Olympic sports facilities — the temperature was around 31 degrees Celsius (nearly 88 Fahrenheit).
“The stadium where we play has no cover, and the match starts at 3 p.m. People start arriving at 4 p.m. to watch. By the second half, when it gets a bit cooler, players are already exhausted.”
Manaus FA shares its public training grounds with joggers and track and field athletes. The kickers have to be creative since there are no goal posts because javelin and discus throwers also use the space.
The field is only 80 yards long, the same length used in the Brazilian league, but it lacks the 10 yards for each end zone. Silva mentioned that there are other fields in the city where the team could practice better, but local officials don’t yet see the sport’s potential.
Despite this, the team attracted American quarterback and linebacker Malik Brown, who had never been to South America until a few months ago and now believes Brazilian football can grow after the NFL game.
Brown, who is from Chicago, had a semi-pro career in the U.S. for two seasons and was about to join the CFL. However, the pandemic disrupted his plans, and the team he was going to join never reached out to him again.
He continued his career in Germany while also working on a family business back home. Then, he received what he calls “a call from God” to come to Brazil.
“I went through a lot of hard times with coaches, the transfer portal, and that whole thing with America. It was kind of messed up. This is where I needed to be,” Brown said. “I don’t need to always be the face.
Sometimes it is about lifting others up, raising their potential. My special ability is being able to fit in anywhere—offense, defense, special teams, coaching room, or locker room. I’m going to step up and give everything I have.”
He plays two roles on the Manaus team: alternating at quarterback with Canuto and also playing linebacker. “I want to help Pedro develop and make this team something we can all be proud of,” Brown said.
Brown and Canuto took turns leading Manaus’ offense during their recent game against Galo FA, following a strategy set by Mexican coach Rodrigo Ríos. Neither managed to score, and the visitors won 23-0.
Canuto left the field feeling disappointed, even with the support from fans. He believes the NFL game in São Paulo will be a turning point for the sport in Brazil and that one day he will have even more supporters.
He hopes to play for another two decades, possibly spending time in Germany or Mexico before starting a quarterback academy in the Amazon. He is studying physical education at a local university to help with his future goals.
Despite the modest future he envisions, his passion for football remains strong.
“I have deeply implanted in my mind that I am carrying the weight of football in the Amazon, I am from here. That has only motivated me to play more, to dedicate myself,” he said. “We’ve only just begun.”
