Before Tanner McKee embarked on his college career at Stanford, where he was a two-year starter and team captain, McKee spent 21 months in Brazil as part of a service mission on behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints.
On Wednesday, McKee returned to Brazil as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, ready to be a part of the NFL's first game in South America when the Eagles take on the Green Bay Packers Friday night at 8:15 PM.
"It's a lot of fun to be able to bring football and the NFL to Brazil and also the role that the Brazilian culture has played in my life, serving a mission there for two years and being able to go back," McKee said earlier this week. "I want to do a camp down there sometime next offseason. I think it would be really cool to be an ambassador for the NFL down there, but also bridge the gap between Brazil and the NFL and also American culture with Brazilian culture. I think it's going to be really cool."
McKee lived briefly in São Paulo, but said he never saw a game at Arena Corinthians – the site of the historic Packers-Eagles matchup.
"Most people know about the sport. They know that it's a violent sport. A lot of them don't understand the rules, the ins and outs of the sport, but they're really curious why it's such a big sport here in the States," McKee said. "I think it'll be a lot of fun to bring that and explain that to some people and I think it will spark an interest. There are semi-pro teams down there that do play American football. It's just not nearly as big as it is here."
McKee practiced with one of the semi-pro teams in Curitiba – the Coritiba Crocodiles – during his mission. A highly touted four-star recruit out of Centennial High School in Corona, California, McKee never waivered on pursuing the mission before enrolling at Stanford.
"It was something that I prepared for most of my life. I just felt like I was blessed with so much," McKee said. "It was a small way that I could give back to my Heavenly Father. Yeah, I have a 6-6 body, I can throw the ball pretty far. I can do all of these things. This is just a way that I can help people, spiritually mainly, because of all of the help that I had in my life."
What does McKee miss the most from his time in Brazil?
"The people and the food," McKee quickly responded. "The people are awesome. They're very welcoming. It was pretty obvious that I was an American. They were very curious about why I was there, why I would give up playing football and living in the States and coming to Brazil. They were really open and welcoming, which I thought was really cool, and the food was awesome."
McKee's food recommendations for fans who are visiting this week – churrasco (grilled beef), coxinha (deep-fried chicken croquettes), and pão de queijo (cheese bread). He provided glowing reviews of the country to his teammates ahead of the team's flight.
"It's easy for people to be scared of things that they do not know," McKee said. "It's a completely different country that a lot of people haven't visited. They're going to speak a different language, the culture is going to be different. It makes sense to take precautions. We do that no matter what game we're going to, but I'm just telling the guys I think everyone is going to be pleasantly surprised how nice everyone is down there and the culture and things like that."
