Touchdown in Brazil

Tony Costa lives in South Philly, loves the Eagles, and bets on games now and then. When he hears that the NFL is playing its first game in South America, with the Eagles facing the Green Bay Packers in São Paulo, he decides to go. Wildfire warnings and talk of gang violence don't put him off. He wants a break from his wife and three kids, and his shaky finances could use a winning bet.

Tony isn't the only fan making the trip. Arthur Braddock, a die-hard Packers supporter, manages a cheese factory warehouse in Wisconsin and sees the game as a chance to take his family abroad. His 11-year-old daughter has fallen hard for American flag football and is eager to come along. In São Paulo itself, Mario Gabriel Santos da Silva and his wife run a sports bar and restaurant, and a game of this size promises a rush of customers. What Mario looks forward to most, though, is taking his 10-year-old son, a very fast flag football player, to the stands to watch the real thing.

As kickoff nears, the three men share meals and trade excitement about the matchup. Game day turns into a tense contest that stays undecided until the final second. Tony is fighting a quieter fight of his own, though. He is the only one of the three who came without his family, and he can't help envying the closeness he sees between the other fathers and their children. Thinking about how they see things, he begins to work out what it means to win.

Omar Tyree, a New York Times bestselling author and NAACP Image Award winner, tells this multicultural story at a brisk pace. It brings the thrill of travel and the pull of a big game together with a message about family and the way sports can bring people from different places together.