SAO PAULO (AP) — Few sports fans in Brazil may know exactly what a Hail Mary pass is. But even those who don’t follow American football will understand when local commentators describe the desperate, end of game move as “throw it high up and pray.”
That is “ JOGA PRO ALTO E REZAAAAAAAA ” in the raucous, flamboyant commentary in Brazilian Portuguese.
Brazilian commentators gearing up for the first NFL game in South America, when the Green Bay Packers face the Philadelphia Eagles in Sao Paulo on Friday, have a big challenge in a soccer-crazy nation. They need to entertain, avoid English jargon and must lose the tactical minutiae so they don’t lose the interest of potential fans. Millions of them will be listening, but the majority seems to prefer funny metaphors, catchy stories about players and loud celebrations on air.
Very, very loud celebrations indeed.
But those are only possible because of a group of mavericks who continue to educate the public about the sport.
Paulo Mancha D’Amaro was among the first Brazilian on-air experts on football. Since 2006, he has covered the sport for multiple sports channels, including ESPN Brasil. He retired in 2022 to work as a wine consultant in Canada, but his legacy has been reignited by the upcoming game in Sao Paulo.
“Back in the 90s, I couldn’t understand a thing. And then it clicked. Once it clicked, I and many other Brazilians fell in love with the sport. We are not embedded in football culture, it is an acquired taste,” D’Amaro told The Associated Press. “When I became an expert, I understood that no one who worked all week should feel stupid by listening to me."
D’Amaro and others believe that no more than 10% of Brazil’s estimated 40 million football fans have deep knowledge of the game. Though some critics say modern Brazilian football commentators and pundits are condescending when dealing with a much more informed public, the country’s sports culture revolves around soccer, volleyball, motorsports and mixed martial arts — and so does the experience of most commentators.
Humor is a key part of sports commentary in Brazil, and in some cases, jokes have taken football to a part of the country’s audience it would never reach with regular broadcasts. The NFL’s website took notice in November 2015 when Rômulo Mendonça, one of the funniest and loudest commentators who was formerly at ESPN, celebrated an 87-yard touchdown catch by the New York Giants’ Odell Beckham Jr. in a game against the New England Patriots.
“Get me pregnant, Odell! Get me pregnant!,” Mendonça screamed. A 10-second clip of his commentary was shared millions of times on social media.
Brazil’s football media has grown with its fanbase over the last years, with open channel RedeTV! broadcasting for three consecutive seasons, new podcasts about the sport appearing in different corners of the country, streaming channel CazéTV joining the club this season, and coverage in general going beyond ESPN, which was for decades the main place for local fans to get information.
Brazil’s earliest football broadcasts date back to 1969 and one of the country’s most popular channels did broadcast some Super Bowls in the 1990s, but the boom only came when cable TV became cheaper and more accessible in the early 2000s. Initially, broadcasters mostly mimicked those from the United States. The Brazilian swagger and banter were injected little by little and reached as far as the remote Amazon region, where American football teams have been established.
Some local commentators and pundits are also new to the sport. Like much of the viewership of RedeTV!, Marcelo do Ó was still learning the game a few years ago. He was already well established as a soccer radio commentator when he began to do American football, too. Fans now know him as the commentator who doesn’t use the term fumble; he describes it as “the soapy catfish attacks again!”
“Football is so different from every other sport we like in Brazil. In the other sports, the ball is the center of the action. And in football that’s not necessarily the case. There’s a lot going on where cameras are not showing, and that’s hard for our viewers,” he said. “The job of us commentators is to direct people’s attention. It is hard to explain to my aunt that a first down can be as important as a touchdown depending on a team’s situation."
Do Ó, D’Amaro and other Brazilian commentators agree viewers of cable channels will be much more demanding about tactics and the narrative of the games than those watching RedeTV! or streaming channel CazéTV, where many fans will be introduced to the sport.
They also agree football should not depend on a single game in Sao Paulo to continue growing in Brazil, a market of 212 million people.
“There’s a lot of situations in the game that I don’t fully master. But what I can do is to ask our experts the same question that people watching at home would like to,” said do Ó. “I am fairly new to this, I learned it from people who were keen to educate me and I already love it. I have fun with it. I am sure many more Brazilians will follow suit.”
