Brandon Aubrey Credits USFL experience for his Journey to becoming nfl all-pro
FEBRUARY 12, 2025 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
By Charles Vaughan
During his first three seasons of professional football, success seemed to accompany Brandon Aubrey wherever he went.
That’s not to say there wasn’t strife involved in Aubrey’s journey—to the contrary, the soccer player-turned-software engineer-turned Birmingham Stallions kicker-turned Dallas Cowboys superstar blazed one of the most unlikely paths in NFL history. But once he finally made it onto a football field, both Aubrey and those surrounding him experienced triumph after triumph. In 2022, Aubrey helped lead Birmingham to the inaugural USFL title, making 18 of his 22 field goal attempts and 22 of his 24 extra point attempts. The following season went even better: Aubrey made 100% of his PATs and missed just a single field goal the entire year. Once again, the Stallions took home the USFL championship.
After the conclusion of the 2023 season, Dallas special teams coordinator John “Bones” Fassel reached out to Stallions special teams coordinator Chris Boniol regarding Aubrey; soon enough, the Plano, Texas native had earned a contract with his hometown team. By August 7th, he had won the starting job. The rest is history: Aubrey made 35 consecutive field goals to begin his career, setting an NFL rookie record and earning him a first-team All-Pro nod. The Cowboys excelled alongside their kicker—Dallas won the NFC East to clinch their third consecutive postseason berth.
The 2024-2025 campaign, on the other hand, felt off-kilter from the start. Dallas opened the year with a blowout win over the Browns, but an embarrassing home loss to the Saints quickly diminished morale. By week nine, America’s Team was nursing a five-game losing streak and a 3-7 record. To make matters worse, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott tore part of his hamstring during a road loss to the Falcons, an injury that would sideline him for the rest of the season. Dallas would go on to rattle off four wins down the stretch, but it was too little, too late. The Cowboys missed the playoffs for the first time since 2020 after posting a 7-10 record.
Through it all, Aubrey continued to shine. Although he couldn’t quite replicate his near-perfect debut season, he remained one of the NFL’s top kickers, drilling 40 of his 47 field goal attempts and connecting on 100% of his PATs. He again made an All-Pro team. Still, the Cowboys’ struggles were difficult for Aubrey to deal with by his own admission.
“Going all the way back to my childhood, it was my first time to miss a playoff,” Aubrey said. “It's definitely new. Pretty painful experience. It seems like the season kind of drags on, especially after you’ve been eliminated from playoff contention.”
“I still got an opportunity to go out and perform at a great venue in front of a lot of fans, passionate fans that deserved the team to give their all, even after they'd been eliminated,” he added. “I'm thankful for that opportunity, but obviously I wanted to get a few more wins and slide into the playoffs, just kind of sneak in there, but we weren't able to do that.”
Losing isn’t the only thing Aubrey has had to adapt to. The Cowboys’ disappointing season catalyzed a leadership change, as head coach Mike McCarthy resigned in early January; 11 days later, the organization replaced him with offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. Fassel was a casualty of the regime shift. Lacking clarity on where he stood in the new administration, the man who brought Aubrey to Dallas took a job with the Tennessee Titans.
“[Fassel] is a good friend of mine, a mentor, someone who discovered me and started my NFL career off right…" Aubrey told DallasCowboys.com last month. "He's been somebody that has been incredible for my career, can't describe just how much he does for you mentally, building up your confidence, not messing with you on the sidelines when you miss one or trying to overcoach specialists."
Nevertheless, Aubrey made it clear he isn’t frustrated with the Cowboys and expressed his eagerness to work with new special teams coordinator Nick Sorenson.
“It's just a situation that was always going to come up because of how highly sought-after Bones is,” Aubrey said. “His contract was up, and with the uncertainty here he couldn't let jobs like the special teams position at the Titans get filled without going into an interview and seeing how it would go. Then, obviously, the Cowboys weren't able to make an offer to him at that time, which makes sense on their side—they hadn't finished their coaching hiring process, and they needed to get that done before they could fill his position.”
“Unfortunate, the way it worked, but no fault of Bones or the Cowboys. Just the way it had to be.”
Despite the chaos of the last few months, some things have remained unchanged. Aubrey is still a devoted Stallions fan; he watched every game of the team’s 2024 championship run and stays in contact with Boniol and several of his former teammates. He views his experience in Birmingham as pivotal to his current success.
“I know [the UFL] might be viewed as a lower tier of competition, but it's still the same sport, and you're still doing the same things, and you're still competing against other athletes, especially at the kicking position, where it's exactly the same thing you're doing at the NFL,” Aubrey said. “It's the same uprights, same size ball, and the same amount of people on the field. It translates perfectly, and you run into all of the same situations that you would in a normal NFL football game where certain things have to be done properly or you're going to fail. To have those opportunities to learn from was invaluable for me.”
“If I hadn't had my shot in the USFL for two years, then things would have started a lot more rocky in the NFL.”
As he enters the third season of living out his NFL fantasy, Aubrey has begun passing the lessons he’s learned along his journey to others. Next month, he will release a 32-page children’s book entitled One Dream in Front of the Other that tells a story strongly inspired by his own life.
“What do you do when you get so close to a dream only to see it unfulfilled? What if you knew a bigger dream was right around the corner?” the book’s summary reads.
“You're more than likely in your life going to fail at something or not reach one of your dreams. In my case, I almost got there, but kind of washed out a lot earlier than I was ready for,” Aubrey said, referring to his 2018 release from professional soccer club Bethlehem Steel FC, which sparked his transition to kicking. “It's how you pivot, take stock of what you're doing, and get ready to chase that next thing that you want. For me, it was just important to put my story on paper and see if I could inspire at least one or two kids and have them realize I started at the place they're at. They can chase down their dreams if they're so inclined to do so.”