4 August 29 - september 4, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents The Man WiTh The Golden leG Much better late than never: How Cowboy Brandon Aubrey became a placekicking phenom. BY KELLY DEARMORE o n Aug. 17, Brandon Aubrey launched a 66-yard field goal during the Dallas Cowboys’ preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders. Had the kick been in the regular season, it would have equaled the all-time record for longest field goal. The ESPN headline the morning after read, “Aubrey fires up Cowboys with 66-yard field goal.” The team’s social media channels spent the ensuing days reliving the moment with footage of the kick and the team’s uproarious celebration when the ball went through the uprights. It was a big night for the Cowboys’ place- kicker. In fact, such a highlight could be the brightest spot for an entire career, but for Aubrey, it wasn’t even the biggest event of his week. On Aug. 11, before the first preseason game of the year had even ended, Aubrey had to leave SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles to be by the side of his wife, Jenn Aubrey, for the birth of the couple’s first child, Colton Scott Aubrey. To the average person, Au- brey’s week of family and triumph is the stuff of a Hollywood movie screenplay. For the 29-year-old Aubrey, however, unique, movie-worthy developments have become almost common. Not boring, cer- tainly, but over the past decade, he’s made a habit out of making dreams new and old come true. i f you follow Dallas pro sports, there’s a decent chance you know a bit about Au- brey’s origin story. After starring in soc- cer at Plano Senior High School, Aubrey went to play soccer for Notre Dame on a scholarship from 2013 to 2016. He became a highly decorated athlete, including earning All-American honors after his senior year. The powerful leg that would catch the eye of one of the most famous pro teams in the world was apparent during his time in South Bend. Aubrey, a long and lean 6-foot-3, 207-pound defender, regularly stepped up to take corner kicks and penalty kicks, some- thing a team’s top-scoring striker often does. During his senior year, Aubrey blasted a game-winning goal from 30 yards away in ex- tra time to beat then No. 4-ranked Stanford. From Notre Dame, Aubrey was drafted in the first round of the 2017 MLS SuperDraft by Toronto FC. But Aubrey never played a single game for Toronto’s top squad, which at the time was a star-studded, title-winning club. After a season with the lower division Toronto FC II and then spending the 2018 season in Pennsylvania with the Bethlehem Steel of MLS Next Pro, a league in the United States’ third, and lowest, division of pro soccer, it appeared that Aubrey’s sports career had come to an end. Soccer may not have worked out for Au- brey, but in early 2019, he had two things from his Notre Dame days that gave him more than enough reason to feel good about his future: a degree in computer science and a new wife. Jenn, who played lacrosse for the Fighting Irish, was also from North Texas. The two had met just before leaving high school for South Bend, fell in love, got engaged and made their way back to North Texas when pro soccer up north didn’t pan out. They married in January 2019. The Aubreys began to settle into a com- fortable life outside of athletics. Brandon worked as a software engineer for GM Fi- nancial in Arlington while Jenn worked as a flight instructor in Sherman. The money was better than it had been in soccer, and now he had weekends off to watch a bunch of sports instead of playing only one. It wasn’t long after getting married that the newlyweds had a conversation that would drastically change the life they were building together. It was a conversation that has been misrepresented in media reports over the past year. While the couple watched an NFL game together one Sunday, a placekicker in the game nailed a field goal. “You could do that,” Jenn said to Brandon. A number of reports have stated that Jenn made the comment af- ter a kicker had missed a field goal. Over the phone from Cowboys training camp in Ox- nard, California, recently, Brandon Aubrey wanted to set the record straight. “My wife would be upset with me if I didn’t mention that she said I could do that after the kick was made, not missed, when we had that conversation that day,” he said with a slight chuckle. “She says I misreported that, but regardless, the rest of the conversation was just me telling her, ‘Yeah, you’re crazy.’” It might be subtle to the uninitiated and, perhaps, a less humorous story, but Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images | UNFAIR PARK | Aubrey kicks an extra point in the first quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at AT&T Stadium in December 2023. >> p6
