Cairo Santos: "As specialists, it’s something we do"

Cairo Santos: "As specialists, it’s something we do."

By Andy Davies

Cairo Santos and the Chicago Bears are preparing to take on the Los Angeles Rams tonight in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs.

After the highs of the 18-point comeback over their fierce rivals in the Green Bay Packers. In the Rams, they are now set to face a team that many are predicting to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in Santa Clara’s Levis Stadium.

After ending a 15-year postseason victory drought, their next task will be to return to the NFC Championship, which they also last achieved 15 years ago.

Should the Bears beat the Rams, they will face a road trip to Lumen Field to take on the Seattle Seahawks, who overcame the San Francisco 49ers in a dominant 41-6 victory last night.

Home advantage is always key for teams in the NFL Playoffs, and weather is on Chicago’s side tonight.

Temperatures expected to be well below freezing at Soldier Field, with winds predicted to run at 14 miles per hour, Chicago possess arguably the biggest home advantage of all four Divisional Round matchups this weekend.

Tom Brady's viral analysis

Just as it will be for Santos later on today, wind was also a factor last weekend when the Philadelphia Eagles hosted the San Francisco 49ers. During the game coverage, FOX analyst Tom Brady spoke on the impact that the winds made on his throwing technique.

The former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback is widely seen as the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. He went viral after his comments.

“What you see, and I talk about the point of the ball a lot, you see it from; I’ll show it to you from this angle,.

“This is kind of like a neutral plane. This is when the plane is slightly down. When you’re throwing it into the wind, it has to be neutral.

“If the point of the ball is up, any wind friction is going to push that ball up over the top.

“So, as a quarterback, you don’t really like that ‘U’ throw underneath, because naturally that’s going to point the tip of the ball up. You like more of a ‘C’ or an inverse, a reverse ‘C’. That’s how you kind of control the point of the ball.

“And then you can kind of just snap it off as you throw it. But in these windy conditions, you can’t be underneath the ball. There’s too much wind surface of the ball to knock it off its path.”

Cairo Santos on the impact of wind

Speaking to Andy Davies, Santos told the Touchdown how his experience on gameday also changes with heavy wind conditions.

“Yeah so I watched that video. It was awesome to see Tom give the quarterback perspective, something that I wasn’t aware of, that quarterbacks thought like that, so it was brilliant to hear him.

“As specialists, it’s something we do to help the ball fight windy conditions. Punters, they kind of lower their drops, similar to what Tom was saying at quarterback, just so the nose doesn’t get caught in the wind, so lower that nose and let that ball fly through.

“In field goal kicking, I lean the ball forward towards the goalpost more so the trajectory comes out, more of like a piercing ball flight. It’s something that I’ve been doing for years here and quickly I learnt how to do watching a guy that I actually watched in my first game at Soldier Field back in 2020.

“I watched Graham Gano, a kicker for the [New York] Giants kick field goals and he was leaning balls so far forward. It was a windy day and I’m like ‘how’s he kicking like this’ and he was just dancing on the field, it was beautiful to watch, just his routine.

“It wasn’t like the highest, longest kicks, but they went through. That’s how you put the balls through the uprights in Chicago. I talked to him and he kind of confirmed that’s why he did it and its helped me kick in this weather, in this wind.”

Bears fans in London can watch tonight’s game in Goldwood Sports Pub, where there will be the chance to win Bears themed gifts. There will be Chicago themed menu items and even a live look-in on videoboard at Soldier Field.

ANDY IS A SPORTS JOURNALISM GRADUATE WITH OVER SIX YEARS EXPERIENCE OF NFL WRITING AND PODCASTING. ANDY HAS BEEN TO EVERY NFL STADIUM AND IS THE HOST OF THE ACROSS THE POD PODCAST. HE HAS PRESS PASS EXPERIENCE AT THE LONDON GAMES AND MANY OTHER NFL BASED EVENTS SUCH AS SUPER BOWL LIX, HAVING INTERVIEWED THE LIKES OF AARON RODGERS, JUSTIN JEFFERSON, JASON BELL, OSI UMENYIORA, PATRICK MAHOMES, TRAVIS KELCE, DERRICK HENRY, SAQUON BARKLEY AND JALEN HURTS

Cairo Santos: “As specialists, it’s something we do”