A question often posed to coaches and veteran players when a young or relatively unknown athlete bursts onto the scene is whether or not he reminds them of someone.
But does that apply when that athlete achieves what no one before him has achieved?
Brandon Aubrey has scored a record 30 consecutive field goals to begin his NFL career.
He became the first kicker in league history to make two field goals of 59 yards or longer in the same game in the Cowboys’ victory over Philadelphia.
A better question when it comes to Aubrey is what makes him unique?
“He has an incredibly natural swing,” special teams coordinator John Fassel said.
Aubrey was a college soccer player and there he developed his technique for kicking the American football.
Aubrey is at the top of the NFL scoring list with 129 points and takes kick returners out of the game. His kickoffs have resulted in 84 touchbacks.
Five more and he will set the league record.
Aubrey went to Plano High School and played soccer her freshman and sophomore years. He played four years of that sport at Notre Dame and was named a third-team All-American his senior season.
He played minor league soccer before landing with the Birmingham Stallions of the United States Football League, or USFL.
That’s when the Cowboys and Fassel became intrigued.
“What’s kind of interesting is that not all kicks are exactly the same,” Fassel said. “Sometimes their completion is a little different based on different things. Sometimes you don’t even know how or what happened, but everything is very fluid and natural.”
Fassel will say that each of Aubrey’s kicks have been slightly different.
Success always trumps proper technique from start to finish.
The only thing Aubrey has in mind when approaching the ball is to keep his head down and swing.
“I’m very conscious of not altering his approach and his swing, you’ll never see that born.” Fassel said.
Also read: Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons asks NFL referees to improve their work
Subscribe to the Al Día newsletter to receive the summary of North Texas news
