(Photo via Brianna Kinnaird)
After his NFL debut for the Dallas Cowboys in a Week 1, 40-0 blowout win over the New York Giants on Sunday Night Football, it’s about time to highlight the incredible journey of America’s team’s new 28-year-old rookie Kicker Brandon Aubrey. A live demonstration on how one man can be a NCAA Soccer National Champion, on one of arguably the greatest teams in Major League Soccer history, retired, a software engineer, the best at his position in an inaugural season of a brand new football league then a back-to-back champion, and finally the Dallas Cowboys’ starting kicker in under 10 years, and still only be 28-years-old.
Brandon Aubrey’s Career Timeline
2013 – NCAA National Champion at Notre Dame, but not in American Football
An 18-year-old software engineering student born in St. Louis, Missouri, Brandon Aubrey arrived at Notre Dame from Plano, Texas. A solid, tall, strong, athletic, smart and versatile defender but a raw football prospect, yet despite being a wide receiver in middle school, wasn’t an American football prospect, he was on campus for soccer. Aubrey didn’t play linebacker, cornerback or safety, he played centre defence. A paired force at the back of a dynamic unit that acts as the goal’s last line of defence on a football or soccer pitch before the goalkeeper.
Defenders are generally tall, quick, smart, humble, aggressive and equipped with the ability to kick a ball to the moon and somewhat accurately to clear their end without worry and hit strikers in motion while making deep runs.
The 2013 Notre Dame Fighting Irish were a force to be reckoned with, only losing one game and finishing the season 17-1-6 as well as defeating (5) Maryland 2-1 in the D1 NCAA Men’s Soccer National Championship game, where a freshman Brandon Aubrey was subbed on at the 79:23 mark for forward and Fighting Irish #9, Leon Brown. Aubrey was brought on to secure a 2-1 lead and bolster their already stacked back 4 into a back 5 for the final 10 minutes and change.
Aubrey finished the 2013 season a National Champion and with 14 of a possible 24 games played as a freshmen, with no goals and an assist. An incredibly positive start to his collegiate career.
2014 – Becoming a Force on the Pitch
Unfortunately the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Men’s soccer team began to drop off in Aubrey’s sophomore year, getting knocked out in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament following a 1-0 loss to (14) Virginia.
Notre Dame finished the campaign 12-5-4, but fortunately for his development that meant playing and starting all 21 games in 2014 and managing to find the back of the net on 3 occasions despite not registering an assist. Positive output from a central defender.
2015 – Maryland get Revenge
In his junior year Aubrey continued his dominant play, despite his team’s relative downfall from glory. He finished the season playing 20 games, only missing 2, he scored 3 goals and collected 2 assists. The team they had overcome to win their National Championship just 2 years prior, Maryland managed to knocked them off 2-1 in the round of 16, leaving them just 11-6-5 heading into Aubrey’s senior season.
2016 – Senior Year: Top-10 NCAA player, Personal Success and Hardware
Let’s start by saying in 2016 Brandon Aubrey finished his season ranked 9th on the topdrawersoccer.com collegiate top 100 players in the country and was named First Team All-ACC, NSCAA First Team All-South Region, NSCAA Academic All-American and NSCAA Third Team All-American. He was a standout defender across the NCAA while also getting touches in the midfield, providing a ridiculous 9 goals (many of them free kicks –foreshadowing–) good enough for 2nd on his team all while being the last line of defence, playing multiple roles.
Unfortunately his personal growth and success did not translate to team success, as Notre Dame finished his accolade studded senior year 12-7-2, losing to (4) Louisville 3-1 in the 3rd round of the NCAA tournament. Then…
2017 – Drafted by a Stacked Toronto FC
Once he declared for the MLS Super Draft, Aubrey was considered a defensive prospect despite demonstrating his ability to navigate the midfield and smoke free kicks past an astonished keeper and into the back of the net in his senior season. He was selected 21st overall by a Toronto FC team led by TFC and MLS legends Sebastian Giovinco, Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore. That team had just lost the 2016 MLS Cup final 0-0 (5-4) on penalties to Seattle Sounders FC at BMO Field in the 2nd most watched MLS Cup final ever, behind last year’s LAFC win in penalties over the Philadelphia Union.
That Cup final loss for Toronto sent them into a winning frenzy in 2017, becoming MLS champions on top of a 20-5-9 record, making them easily one of the best MLS sides in history, and the winningest Cup champions in history.
Unfortunately for Aubrey this meant making his debut for Toronto FC II, and spending the entirety of his rookie season with the second squad. He managed his way into the starting XI on all but one of his appearances, making 21 of 22 starts. While TFC II was the worst team in their conference with a record of 6-7-19 and with Aubrey being unable to find the score sheet in any column but the yellow card category by collecting 3, he was subsequently cut by Toronto FC after the 2017 season.
He expressed his difficulties adjusting to a star-studded roster and the trials and tribulations that come with being a youngster in that situation, claiming “I would say I wasn’t fully prepared for that first opportunity in MLS, where you get on a superstar team, where you have the Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, Sebastian Giovincos that you’ve been watching your whole life. Where you followed it really closely and maybe have that feeling where you might not actually belong,”.
2018 – Bethlehem Steel FC
Aubrey then went on to immediately sign with the Bethlehem Steel who were the second squad for the Philadelphia Union of the United Soccer League. Though his second professional season was eerily similar, despite seeing the pitch in 5 more appearances, he was once again unable to find the scoresheet aside from 7 yellow cards and was once again cut and left to free agency.
2019 – Retired from Professional Sports to Pursue Software Engineering
After exploring free agency, Aubrey decided to retire from professional sports and explore software engineering gigs, as that was the degree he received from his 4-year tenure at Notre Dame. In June of 2019 he officially began his new ‘real life job’ as a software engineer at GM Financial. Here’s his LinkedIn which still says he works at GM Financial, I’m quite sure he doesn’t. You can see it here:
While watching a NFL game in early 2019, his wife said “You could do that,” to Brandon after watching a kicker miss a field goal. That was all it took to set him on his new journey to be a professional football player. He immediately began testing his abilities on the gridiron to knock the pigskin through the uprights which came fairly naturally to him.
2020 – Hired a Kicking Coach and Became a Free Agent as an American Football Kicker
Aubrey hired the Novak Kicking & Consulting, LLC. to convert his kicking game and it instantly showed signs of success, as he was naturally drilling 60-yarders without any experience in the sport since middle school as a wide-out.
2021 – 0 Career Snaps, 0 Interest
Continuing his transition and likely still working as a software developer, Aubrey began making significant strides, but hadn’t seen much interest from professional teams.
2022 – Drafted Last by the Birmingham Stallions of the USFL
On April 16th, 2022, Brandon Aubrey officially began his professional American football career after being drafted in the United States Football League’s inaugural draft by the Birmingham Stallions with the very last selection of the kickers round, in a draft that rounds were separated by position. By accepting the contract, Aubrey was agreeing to more than a 50% pay deduction to stall his career in software engineering and join the Stallions in order to prolong his professional athletic career.
Aubrey immediately became a league-wide fan favourite, not just because of his field goal precision, but because of his occasional willingness to hunt and crunch.
After ending his first year a USFL champion, he was also selected to the All-USFL team.
2023 – Starting for the Biggest Franchise in Sports
Beginning his 2023 year by securing a 2nd USFL championship in back-to-back fashion in the spring, the options started to open up for Aubrey. By July 3rd he had terminated his contract to initiate negotiations with the Dallas Cowboys, who had shown interest and signed him 3 days later on July 6th. Before anyone noticed he had made his way past the Cowboys’ summer training camp and into the preseason roster.
But much like the rest of his professional sports career, it didn’t come easy for him. Despite edging out other kickers in training camp and securing consistent preseason roles he was still competing for the starting job going into their final preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Brandon Aubrey was presented with an opportunity to secure his starting role with a daunting 59-yard field goal attempt with 3:35 left in the 1st quarter of the game, harrowing at any level of the sport. He missed.
As symbolic as it is, and as hard not to bring Ted Lasso into this as it is, he was presented that same opportunity again 3 quarters later with 8 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, and of course he drilled it, securing his starting kicker role for the Dallas Cowboys.
NFL Debut – September 10th, 2023
I guess you could say Brandon Aubrey’s NFL debut was a resounding success. Despite missing his first career extra point attempt, he finished the day 4/5 on extra points and 2/2 on field goals from 21 and 38 yards.
In case you were concerned about his salary difference from the MLS to the NFL, you’ve read deep enough.
His MLS salary in 2017: $65,000
His USFL salary in 2022/23: $75,000
His NFL salary in 2023: $750,000
Picture via Brianna Kinnaird