Stanford grad who won titles with the Patriots can’t explain their success to the Cowboys
He should be a rocket scientist but instead he is in his sixth NFL season, earning two Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots before he joined the Dallas Cowboys last season.
He was only too sure that he would never play college football.
That is why when TCU coach Gary Patterson offered Cypress Creek offensive lineman Cameron Fleming a scholarship to play for the Horned Frogs, Fleming grabbed it. His father wanted him to wait, so the son complied. From the drive back from Fort Worth to Houston, Cameron Fleming waited.
The four-hour drive was long enough.
“I accepted the offer on the day they made the offer,” Fleming said. “I mean, I didn’t think I was going to play college football. After I told TCU, almost immediately I had, like, 30 more offers.”
One of those offers came from Stanford.
“My mom made me go there. Once my parents saw Stanford offered me they said, ‘You’ll go there,’” Fleming said. “I had to call Coach Patterson and tell him. I think he knew it was Stanford. I loved it there. Super interesting people. Fun campus. I liked TCU but Stanford was the right place for me.”
Today Fleming is arguably one of the smartest players in the NFL.
Fleming graduated from Stanford with a degree in aeronautics and astronautics. At the time, in 2013, he was one of 18 students majoring in that sequence at Stanford.
Despite his intellect, education and background, Fleming has no clue what makes the New England Patriots so much better than every other NFL team.
The Cowboys play the Patriots in New England on Sunday, and are a 6.5 point underdog.
If anyone on the Dallas Cowboys could know what makes the Patriots laughably elite, Fleming is your guy. He was selected by the Patriots in the 2014 NFL Draft and stuck with the team for the next four years.
“I don’t know what their secret is. They’re keeping it,” he said. “People think they have some magic formula or something like that. I think everybody thinks something like that. They are just a team but it’s more about execution more than anything else.
“Even being there, you just execute really well, and (quarterback Tom Brady) helps a lot more. I don’t know how to verbalize it all.”
If this guy can’t verbalize it, no one can.
Fleming was one of the versatile “swing” players coach Bill Belichick is renowned for finding. Fleming was a tackle-eligible player. He started at left tackle. He started at right tackle.
He played in three Super Bowls.
He came to the Cowboys last season and has served in a similar role. He has filled in for Tyron Smith on the left side and La’el Collins on the right.
Fleming is the backup for a reason. He also has this six-figure job for a reason.
He just doesn’t know beyond the rest of us. It’s Brady. It’s Belichik.
“A lot of teams have a good quarterback,” Fleming said. “They are not the only team with a good coach. They have something more teams are trying to find. I think we have it here but we have to execute throughout the entire season.”
So there is your answer.
Fleming has Super Bowl rings because of the Patriots, and he spent years on their team, and he is the smartest man in the NFL.
But in the end he’s better equipped to answer questions about aeronautics and astronautics than how the New England Patriots always win.
