Brito, born to a Spanish-American father and Mexican-American mother, grew up in Lincoln Heights, a then mostly Italian American neighborhood, located in Los Angeles.

Brito played in the Canadian Football League for the Calgary Stampeders in 1954 where he was an All-conference selection in the CFL's Western Conference.

He is one of four defensive ends on the team, along with Dexter Manley, Ron McDole and Charles Mann.

Brito was elected posthumously to the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 1989.

[6] During an August 1971 visit to the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, President Richard Nixon, who had been friendly with Kennedy during their congressional years, told sportscaster Frank Gifford that he considered Brito a candidate for enshrinement at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.