FRISCO, Texas 鈥� There was once a young soccer player in Plano, a suburb of Dallas located only minutes from downtown, that grew up in the shadow of the 蜜桃TV' aura and influence, never once considering he'd eventually be the best kicker in the NFL and, now, the highest-paid in the history of the league at the position 鈥� his name being Brandon Aubrey.
The journey for Aubrey to get to this point, a three-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro awarded a four-year extension by his hometown Cowboys, is truly one of perseverance, belief, opportunity and timing.
"I grew up here and I love the organization," Aubrey said. "I wanted to be back."
A dutiful reminder of Aubrey's road to now is in order here, most certainly:
Nine years ago, Aubrey was playing professional soccer in Toronto.
Eight years ago, he was in Pennsylvania looking to extend his soccer career, but that didn't go as planned either, and he wound up using his Notre Dame degree to become a software engineer.
Seven years ago, Aubrey heard four fateful words that changed his life's trajectory, when he and his wife watched an NFL kicker miss a field goal only for her to turn to him and say, 'You could do that."
He went to a local football field, discovered he could make 60-yarders (easily), and linked with Brian Egan, former Mississippi State kicker and kicking coach, three times a week, for three years, before being brought on by the UFL's Birmingham Stallions as their placekicker, the USFL scoring leader in the same season he was named to the All-USFL team (2022)..
That's where John "Bones" Fassel, the special teams coordinator for the Cowboys at the time, discovered him and brought him home to Dallas 鈥� or, more accurately, to Southern California to compete with Tristan Vizcaino and Lirim Hajrullahu in training camp in Oxnard.
Hajrullahu was released, and Vizcaino eventually lost out to Aubrey and, four years ago, the young boy from Plano was heading back to Dallas, where the former NFL scoring leader (2023) has already become one of the league's best kickers of all-time; and with only three seasons on his resume; and, one day ago (from this article being written), Aubrey made history, securing his family's future in the process.
What a ride.
"I've proven to myself I can pull myself out of the ashes of one career and figure out how to be successful in another area of life," Aubrey said. "I think that proved to myself, and hopefully other people, that success and failure doesn't really define you. It's your work ethic and figuring out how to be a better person. You can accomplish pretty much anything you put your mind to with the right tools and some commitment."
Already a father of a young son, Aubrey revealed he and his wife are expecting a second child, due in June, but that their current home doesn't have space for the new addition, save for turning the home office into a nursery.
With his new record-setting contract now final, the Aubreys plan to finally have a house built, and the bonus is that it's in the exact city he'd long hoped it'd be in 鈥� his full circle moment in 2022, etched in concrete for 2026 and beyond.
"I'm just excited to be home," he told DallasCowboys.com immediately after putting pen to paper. "I've been here my whole life. It's a place that's special to me. My family, my wife's family is still here, so it was a priority for me to stay put. I think this is a world class organization. I think the world of them. So excited to be home."
Aubrey admits his first-ever negotiation for a longterm NFL contract took him out of his comfort zone, but that's in the past, the laser-focused All-Pro locked in on the things he'd prefer to focus on: family and football, the uncertainty of the process having finally come to an end.
"I've been reflecting on it quite a bit over the past 24 hours, and it hasn't sunken in quite yet." he said. "I do feel like a weight and stress, deep down, is gone. I'm able to enjoy day-to-day life a little bit more again. 鈥� I'm a happier person again."
Needless to say, so are the Cowboys, who went from being in dire straits in the post-Dan Bailey era to stumbling across a former pro soccer player turned UFL kicker who they believed was worth taking a chance on, eventually realizing they'd found a winning Powerball ticket in someone who just happened to grow up right down the road.
Sometimes destiny has a long and winding road, but there's a reason it's the root word for "destination", and Aubrey's seemed always fated to be right where he's standing: in the same place he stood as a young boy, just with different cleats on.
