From unemployed to Pro Bowl: Soccer players revitalizing the NFL kicking game
LOS ANGELES — It was Brandon Aubrey's wife Jenn who first realized her husband might have been playing the wrong sport.
Two years after being selected in the first round of the MLS SuperDraft, and a year after retiring from soccer without appearing in an MLS match, the Aubreys were watching an NFL game on TV when a kicker set up for a field-goal try.
You could do that, Jenn told him.
Unconvinced, Aubrey grabbed a football and headed to the nearest high school field, where he began booming 60-yard kicks.
Maybe he could do this.
Four years later, there's no longer any doubt. Aubrey set an NFL rookie record this season by making his first 35 field-goal tries for the Dallas Cowboys, becoming the first kicker to make both a 59- and 60-yard kick in the same game. He also led the league in scoring, with 157 points, in field goals made, with 36, and in touchbacks, with a league-record 99, making him the best at his craft in what has been the greatest year for kickers in NFL history.
There were a record 911 field goals this season, with kickers converting on nearly 86% of their
