Any Dallas Cowboys fan will tell you: a star has quietly, and then very loudly, emerged over the last few seasons. <\/p>\n
A player who has sealed wins not with a last-second catch or goal-line stand, but with the swing of his leg and the calm of a warrior. But Brandon Aubrey never grew up dreaming of the NFL. He didn\u2019t even grow up thinking about football.<\/p>\n
His road to becoming one of the most accurate kickers in league history started on a very different kind of pitch, and with a very different dream.<\/p>\n
Before they were a Cowboys fan favorite couple, Brandon and Jenn Aubrey were just two North Texas kids chasing Division I dreams. <\/p>\n
Jenn was a high school All-American at Ursuline Academy of Dallas, a latecomer to lacrosse who rocketed up the ranks after picking up a stick as a freshman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen freshman year I decided to start playing lacrosse,\u201d she remembers. \u201cAnd sophomore year I was recruited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brandon, meanwhile, was the soccer kid in Plano who never took his jersey off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think in fifth grade I wore a soccer jersey every single day to school,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was always my dream to be a professional athlete. Soccer was what I chose to chase down.\u201d<\/p>\n
They met as seniors in high school, both already ticketed for the University of Notre Dame. On campus, they grew up together \u2014 on the field and off.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kind of figured out who we were as adults together,\u201d Brandon says. \u201cSo you can\u2019t really separate us at this point. I feel like half of you is just kind of missing.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Notre Dame, Brandon helped the Irish win a national championship in 2013 and became a star center back. Jenn thrived in lacrosse. Two big dreams, both realized.<\/p>\n
After graduation, Brandon got exactly what his fifth-grade self dreamed about: a professional contract with Toronto FC in Major League Soccer, followed by a stint with Bethlehem Steel FC.<\/p>\n
But the reality didn\u2019t feel like the fantasy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d always treated it like a job,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I got there, I\u2019d watched these guys on TV for so long and didn\u2019t really feel like I belonged. A little bit of imposter syndrome. I was afraid to make mistakes and I think that limited my ceiling. As soon as practice was done, I was done with it for the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenn could see it from the outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I did think he played scared,\u201d she says. \u201cHis demeanor wasn\u2019t the same. At Notre Dame, he was a star there. He loved it, was having so much fun and excelling at everything. It just wasn\u2019t like that anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
The competition level skyrocketed. Brandon was no longer the star, just one of the guys fighting to hang on.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re on the field and you\u2019re just kind of one of the guys,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to find a way to scratch and claw your way onto the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, after his stint with Bethlehem Steel FC, Aubrey did the thing so many athletes dread: he walked away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was ready to start a family, start a life,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought I was putting myself behind the eight ball if I wasn\u2019t making as much money as I could as a software engineer. So it was time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
He took a job at GM Financial. Jenn became a pilot instructor at American Airlines. It looked like their lives were settling into a new, more traditional chapter.<\/p>\n
Then came one random night on the couch. They were watching an NFL game, just like they\u2019d done a hundred times before. Except this time, Jenn was watching the kickers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were actually just watching the game and I was watching the kickers, examining them,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m thinking, I think Brandon could do that. He was very good at soccer with super powerful shots. He took the PKs and set pieces. And he was unstoppable.\u201d<\/p>\n
So she said it out loud.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him, \u2018I really think you could do that,\u2019\u201d Jenn remembers.<\/p>\n
Brandon\u2019s first reaction?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Jenn, do you know how much work it takes to be a professional athlete?\u2019\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n
Her answer: actually, yes, I do.<\/p>\n
That was the spark.<\/p>\n
The very next day, they bought a football and a tee and headed to Jenn\u2019s local high school field. No coach. No routine. Just a former soccer player, a ball, and a big idea.<\/p>\n
Brandon backed up for a 60-yard attempt.<\/p>\n
He hit it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started a couple yards closer,\u201d Jenn says, \u201cbut he set up for a 60-yard goal, kicked it and made it \u2014 with no training whatsoever. We were like, okay. We have something here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt pretty natural,\u201d Brandon says. \u201cI was just going to where I was comfortable away from the ball and running up to kick it. I knew that\u2019s not the way NFL kickers do it, but it felt natural.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0The Aubreys started searching online and found performance kicking coach Brian Egan.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, Performance Kicking Academy,\u201d Jenn says.<\/p>\n
Brandon showed up not to some elite private workout, but to Egan\u2019s free weekly middle-school and high-school clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw on his website, \u2018first one\u2019s free,\u2019\u201d Brandon says. \u201cSo I showed up. At that point, I had no shame. I\u2019d already flamed out of soccer, so I\u2019m like, it doesn\u2019t matter. If I look bad, I look bad. It doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Egan saw something special. Brandon kept coming back. Week after week. Year after year.<\/p>\n
For three years he trained, learning everything from footwork to timing to how to handle pressure as a kicker, not a defender.<\/p>\n
The next problem: film.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest obstacles was Brandon needed game film,\u201d Jenn explains. \u201cWe\u2019re out of school, and obviously we need film to get to the NFL. The USFL at the time just happened to have an inaugural season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brandon signed with the Birmingham Stallions, using the spring league as his proving ground. It was his chance to show that the guy who could hit from 60 yards on a high school field could do it under the lights, with a rush coming at him.<\/p>\n
The NFL noticed. In 2023, Brandon Aubrey signed with the Dallas Cowboys, the team he grew up watching with his family every Sunday. \u201cYeah, my family would sit down and watch the Cowboys every weekend as a kid growing up,\u201d he says. \u201cSo it\u2019s truly a blessing to be here. My family still lives 10 minutes from the practice facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not everyone believed in the move at first. \u201cA lot of people didn\u2019t believe it was the right decision,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut the people that made the decision believed it in their hearts and gave me every opportunity to succeed. And I\u2019m really thankful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t waste the opportunity.<\/p>\n
Since joining Dallas, Aubrey has become one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history, with an 88.2% career field goal percentage and multiple All-Pro selections. He already holds the league record for most career field goals of 60 yards or longer, with six.<\/p>\n
From \u201csoftware engineer watching a game on the couch\u201d to \u201crecord-shattering kicker for America\u2019s Team\u201d in just a few years, it\u2019s one of the wildest pivots in modern sports. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy, especially when it\u2019s something that as a kid you didn\u2019t set out to do,\u201d he says. \u201cSo many people do set out specifically to have this job and work their entire lives to be as best as they possibly can. It\u2019s just a testament to how hard we worked in a short amount of time and how we let the failures from one path translate into success on another with the lessons we learned.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0If there\u2019s a theme to the Aubrey story, it\u2019s belief, especially Jenn\u2019s belief in Brandon.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d Jenn says. \u201cDefinitely from the very beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now the couple is raising their young son Colton, with another baby boy on the way, while Brandon kicks under the biggest spotlight in football.<\/p>\n
He hopes his sons will be old enough to remember this chapter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want him to be able to realize just how cool it is and how special it is for someone to have a platform like this,\u201d Brandon says. \u201cIt\u2019s a blessing. It\u2019s been incredible. It\u2019s a dream come true. Hopefully we can do it long enough where he can really take that in.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as for where he wants that dream to continue?<\/p>\n
Meredith puts it plainly: This is such a dream to be in Dallas and we hope you never leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe too,\u201d Brandon says with a smile.<\/p>\n
Is the goal to stay?<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, absolutely,\u201d he answers.<\/p>\n
Jenn doesn\u2019t hesitate either.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be amazing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
For two kids from North Texas who once just dreamed of playing college sports, it\u2019s hard to imagine a more unexpected, or more fitting, field of dreams than the one they now share at AT&T Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Any Dallas Cowboys fan will tell you: a star has quietly, and then very loudly, emerged over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16342,102,113,104,103],"class_list":["post-155338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-blue-star","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}