- 20 hours ago
Zero Star: The Cam Ward Story - Season 1 Episode 1
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00:00.
00:13Tomorrow?
00:14Oh, yes.
00:15First-comer.
00:16No, I can't do my suit.
00:18Can she wear this form?
00:20No, just your shirt.
00:21It's not in that spot.
00:22You want that?
00:23My hat backwards?
00:24No, look.
00:25You want my suitcase going?
00:26Over here, why?
00:27Look in there.
00:28I should have another for a white sauce.
00:29Green Bay, Wisconsin, the home of the 2025 NFL Draft.
00:55It's the day we've all been waiting for.
00:57We are just moments away from hearing the Tennessee Titans are on the clock.
01:01The commissioner, Roger Goodell, kicking off our coverage here of the draft.
01:04It's time to get the show started.
01:06Are you ready?
01:10We have an estimated 250,000 people who have come here tonight.
01:16The draft is open.
01:17The Titans are on the clock.
01:20With the first pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans collect.
01:27The Titans are on the clock.
01:33The Titans are on the clock.
01:34Go, go, go, go, go.
01:37Ward is under pressure.
01:39He throws.
01:40Caught.
01:41Ward plenty of time going deep down the field.
01:44Ward gets rid of it.
01:46Touchdown.
01:49On offense.
01:50Now Ward going to throw it for the first time.
01:51Looks one way.
01:52Back the other.
01:53Ward's going to take off.
01:54Diving.
01:56Touchdown, Cam Ward.
01:58Fuck the weep off.
01:58Fairytales are pretty uncommon these days.
02:06In college football, we're recruiting sites or tracking players from middle school onward.
02:11They're basically impossible.
02:13But for a kid named Cameron Anthony Ward, what is impossible?
02:18From zero star to number one pick in the NFL Draft.
02:21Cameron Ward.
02:22Quarterback.
02:23Miami.
02:23Cameron Ward defied all odds, and it all started in a small town, West Columbia, Texas.
02:31Welcome to West Columbia, Texas, the first capital of the Republic of Texas.
02:36We are a very proud historic city, but never more proud than of Cameron Ward and his story
02:44and his success on the football field.
02:48Cameron has inspired so many young athletes.
02:53His story is a story of inspiration.
02:56It's a story of good work ethic.
02:59Steps up.
03:00There's a flip toss.
03:01South Texas, you don't get a lot of the credit that some of the inner city kids get, the Dallas
03:06kids get, but, you know, it's big time football in Texas from 1A, 2A, all the way up to 6A.
03:14Quarterback Ward have operated...
03:16Cameron was a special young man, however.
03:18The man delivers dice.
03:20Just from the birth, I mean, he always loved the ball.
03:23He was just an athletic young boy who always wanted to play ball, doing something.
03:28He's very active.
03:29Cameron's a very respectful young man.
03:32He's friends with everyone.
03:34He respects his elders.
03:36He respects his peers.
03:37No one's no better than he is.
03:40I think that he's a team player.
03:41He's always had leadership roles.
03:44I grew up with basketball in my hands.
03:45First thing, I played youth basketball, junior high, always got the high school.
03:50I was just so...
03:51I had that dream, just said, to make it to the NBA, just take basketball as far as I could.
03:55Cameron has always played basketball since he was born.
04:00Cameron was probably four years old and started playing youth basketball.
04:06He came to me in the second grade, and he wanted to play football.
04:10We were deep into AAU basketball.
04:13I was like, why don't you wait a year?
04:15Why don't you wait to third grade?
04:17So fast forward a year, he came home from school with a form.
04:21I was like, well, what is this?
04:22Well, this is a football form.
04:24And I'm like, well, you don't need to play football.
04:26And he's like, well, you told me a year ago that wait a year.
04:30Okay, well, I got to keep my word.
04:32But he first started playing football in the third grade.
04:35I ended up transitioning into quarterback.
04:38My second year playing with my dad, he started his own football league.
04:41He was my coach.
04:42My dad, he was a high school quarterback at Van Vlake High School.
04:45He was the first one that taught me to throw a football.
04:46I taught me how to throw a spiral, how to hold the football, everything.
04:49I feel like that's where, you know, the story started.
04:52To say Cameron Ward was a workhorse from day one was an understatement.
04:57But that dedication and drive came directly from his family.
05:01A lot of people see what he does on the field now, even when he was in Pop Warner, Tri-City
05:06Cougars and Columbia Little Knicks.
05:09You see all of that, but you don't see the backyard stuff, the stuff that he puts in outside.
05:13But I did, from being outside with my dad having football nets, and I'm chasing him with shoes,
05:19throwing stuff at him, getting in the way to maneuver, to get out of the pocket and throw,
05:24was just something that I think, if it wasn't for that time in our lives, he wouldn't be where he is today.
05:30Well, we think competitiveness, I mean, is very important.
05:34Not from the point that you always have to win a game, but if you lose a game, you have to learn something from it.
05:41Because I think it carries over to life.
05:43He was very easy to coach.
05:46He picked it up really quick.
05:48I attribute a lot of that to his family behind him.
05:53They haven't missed a game.
05:55A lot of parents, you know, whether they're on business, a lot of other kids' parents,
05:58they'll have to miss a game here or there, but my parents haven't missed one of my games,
06:02whether it's basketball or football.
06:04Even when I did track and field, throwing the discies, they've always showed up to each and every one of my track meets.
06:08I know my family will do anything for me.
06:10They're the reason why I'm at this point in my life right now, you know,
06:13just because of the sacrifices that they made for me financially, time-wise, with every sport.
06:20I mean, I would go to IMG Academy every year in Florida.
06:23Since I was probably, I think it was third or fourth grade, we started going there.
06:27And I would do basketball, football.
06:29They just invested so much money to get me to where I'm at.
06:33I knew he had talent, and I knew his mom and daddy had spent time and effort and money taking him all over the country for basketball camps.
06:46Chantel remembers going.
06:47I remember her in junior high telling me how many trips she had made, and she was tired of it,
06:52because we all thought Cameron was destined to be a basketball star.
06:58Were there any NBA players that you look at that give you inspiration for your football game?
07:02Kobe Bryant, for sure.
07:04If there was ever a perfect person for Cam to look up to, the Black Mamba, Kobe Bean Bryant, fit that role.
07:12I had a chance to go to his camp twice out here in California, looking at his highlights, his videos, the motivational podcast that he did.
07:21It was inspirational.
07:22I also have a signed jersey from him, so it was just a big old jersey framed in my room back at home, something that I look at every day.
07:30He means a lot, but I think he means a lot to this world, just the mentality that you have to bring, especially my position,
07:36the mentality that you've got to bring on and off the field, whether you're in the work, working, playing, sports, whatever you do.
07:41You just got to bring the same mindset every day.
07:45A lot of people don't know, but I was going to quit football my sophomore year just because I was just so focused on basketball and everything else.
07:53So, you know, that's when I started to get more passionate about it.
07:56We were coming back from a basketball tournament in San Antonio on Sunday evening, and he said that he didn't want to play football.
08:03He wasn't going to go to practice the next day.
08:05So the next morning, Calvin went to work.
08:07You know, I hadn't started school yet.
08:09But football practice started, so I went in this room.
08:11I said, Cameron, hey, you going to go to practice?
08:14No, I said, let me tell you something.
08:17You go today, and if you feel like, because our theory is if you start something, you're going to finish it.
08:23You don't quit.
08:24You're going to finish out that whole season.
08:27I said, you go to practice today because I don't want you to have no regrets.
08:30You go to practice.
08:31I said, get ready.
08:32I'm going to take you to practice.
08:32I said, when you come home today and I pick you up and you say that you don't like it and you don't want to play no more, then we're done.
08:38We're done.
08:40So Cameron went on.
08:41I took him.
08:42We live in Angleton.
08:43I drove him to West Columbia, dropped him off at practice, picked him up that evening.
08:47He didn't say anything.
08:48I was like, how was practice?
08:49It was fine.
08:50Next morning, he said, Mama, I'm going to practice.
08:53You going to practice?
08:55Yeah, I'm going.
08:55I said, okay.
08:56That means you're starting football.
08:58That means no quitting.
08:59You're going to have to finish out the season.
09:01Yes, ma'am, I'm going to finish out the season.
09:02My mom, she made me go one more day.
09:04And, you know, that one more day, you know, turned into a second day, you know, end up changing my life for the better.
09:10Here we go, man.
09:11Fine.
09:12Good.
09:13Sometimes all you need is one set of eyeballs to catch you at the right time, to change everything.
09:20Good.
09:21The transition occurred his junior year in high school.
09:25He had a long-time coach there, Steve Van Meter, and he was working out with Cameron one day, and he told him, hey, he told me, watch this.
09:37He put Cameron on the right hash mark.
09:39He put a receiver on the left hash mark, and he had Cameron throw a 15-yard out.
09:45And so Coach Van Meter came over to me that day and said, hey, I coach Chase Griffin, who's a quarterback at UCLA, and he can't make that throw.
09:56Talent is one thing.
09:57Being a technician means that you sat down and you technically challenge yourself to learn every aspect about the game.
10:07That's what he done.
10:07There's nothing from a quarterback perspective or how to get the ball or how to deliver the ball that Cam Ward doesn't have and didn't have back then.
10:17When I keep the shoulder closed and keep everything in line, I throw a good ball.
10:22My name is Steve Van Meter.
10:24I was a head football coach for 35, 37 years in Texas.
10:29I was at Friendswood for 30, which is where Cam and I, you know, got together.
10:37I was probably, I guess, Cam's first quarterback coach, so to say.
10:42The ball coming out of his hands was like a different sound than I'd ever heard from quarterbacks.
10:46And I'd had some pretty good quarterbacks that played at, you know, college level.
10:49We worked a lot with his footwork, and he came every Saturday or every Sunday, you know,
10:55for all that junior, end of his junior year and then beginning of his senior year.
11:00We'd do, you know, a lot of drills and mechanics because, you know, during the football season,
11:06you don't give an opportunity to work on your mechanics a lot.
11:08You have to, you know, you're working on inside hole, outside hole, you know, Pascal or whatever.
11:15So we would do that work.
11:17There's times when me and my dad would go to Coach Van Meter's house,
11:20and he would just sit down and just walk me through concepts.
11:23He knew I didn't have a clue what he was drawing up, nothing.
11:28Like, he knew that, and, you know, for him to take time out of his day to do that for me,
11:34you know, it was big time because, you know, he just, he got me through the door
11:38of where I wanted to go in life.
11:40And, you know, if we wouldn't have had those little meetings with him,
11:43drive all the way to his house, have those little meetings with him,
11:45train with him every Sunday, whether it's after a basketball tournament,
11:49I would still go down to Friendswood and train with him.
11:51if I'm tired or anything.
11:53So he got me through the door, and, you know, he's a big part.
11:57He's a big part of my life.
11:58You want to hit him into the second or third, maybe the fourth step
12:02as he comes off his break, okay?
12:06Coach Van Meter saw something that no one else saw.
12:09He had no problem going to football.
12:15Everybody knew that.
12:18Yeah, he could have racked up, no telling how many yards,
12:22but he learned to be a quarterback in this system here at Columbia High School.
12:28It was a good system.
12:30It might not have been the best system for him, but it was a good system.
12:33They won a lot of games.
12:35The wing tee offense is a misdirection offense.
12:40So typically, if the quarterback, in this case Cam, would go to the right,
12:47nine times out of ten, the ball is going to come back to the left.
12:51So the offense he ran in high school, it was very, very good
12:54for the first four or five games of each year until district starts.
12:59Because what happens is that a great coach will know that, hey,
13:04if Cameron's going to go to the right, the ball is going to come back to the left,
13:08and the linebackers will stay at home, and that's what happened.
13:12So they would start out each year averaging 340 yards a game until district started.
13:17So those were some of the challenges of strictly running a wing tee offense
13:24with limited pass.
13:25Even though people write about it and disagree, I personally think it benefited.
13:33Because he's a full quarterback.
13:34You see that.
13:35He runs the ball.
13:36He handles the ball.
13:37He throws the ball.
13:39We have three or four passing nets at the house.
13:42So when Cam would get home from practices, we would go in the backyard,
13:47throw maybe a couple hundred passes.
13:49When he was in high school, on Saturday mornings, Cam and I would go up to the field and throw passes.
13:55So even though he wasn't throwing the ball, we continued to work on Cam's development
14:01because we knew one day it would pay off.
14:05Rolling on first and ten board to the end zone, caught touchdown.
14:10For Cameron, there was no being seen.
14:12In his high school offense, the wing tee, the QB can't show off who he is.
14:19And for that, college football pushed him aside.
14:22Watching some of his videos from West Columbia and him throwing the deep ball,
14:27it was like, God, how are people not seeing this?
14:29I don't care if he's only throwing it 12 times a game.
14:32How are you not seeing this arm strength here?
14:35It's funny.
14:35I'd always ask him, I'd say, Cam, why aren't they running you in the wing tee?
14:39I said, who's going to tackle your big ass?
14:41I mean, you're 6'2", 20, and who's going to tackle you?
14:44He goes, they don't want to get me hurt.
14:45There's no other quarterback.
14:47I said, okay, whatever.
14:50That's amazing.
14:53What makes Cam Ward's case so unique in terms of how he's going to navigate the recruiting process
14:57without really throwing the football, coming out of a wing tee offense is unique
15:02because he's working with a quarterback coach to get the time on task.
15:06You know, he's throwing the football a lot with the quarterback coach and trainer,
15:10but it's not being shown on film.
15:13And to give grace to these recruiters and coaches, like, hey, man, yeah, you told me you could do this.
15:18We got to see you do it.
15:20We can see you do it in practice.
15:21We can see you do it with the trainer.
15:22But there's nothing like getting those game time repetitions.
15:25And we're only seeing you throw the football 12 times a game.
15:28So, obviously, in our eyes, in terms of the scout, it's like, hey, that's not enough.
15:33So, I can't risk my job, my family, my livelihood on, you know, you throwing the ball 12 times
15:40and saying, hey, you're working with a coach.
15:42What if you can't hit that route that you're hitting in practice in the game?
15:45I need to see it.
15:46So, it kind of puts Cam in a tough spot.
15:49What they should have focused on was how Cam was leading his football team each and every year.
15:54They got better with him as a starter, had a great senior season.
15:58Obviously, the leadership intangibles are there.
16:01The raw arm strength is there.
16:03But it takes a coach to really put a stamp on the guy and say, I can work with this guy.
16:08I can develop this guy.
16:09He's a good fit for what we want to do.
16:11I think he's going to be a great player.
16:12And this is like the old school way of scouting, where a guy may not have been the most polished
16:17prospect, but he had enough raw tools, which is why I feel like Cam going under-recruited
16:22and being a zero star was just laughable.
16:26Being overlooked in my shoes, it was a blessing and a curse.
16:30You got to not only work harder than people, but you have to try and put yourself out there.
16:36From my dad sending emails to D1 schools, even down to D3 and JUCO schools.
16:42I know it was hard for me, but I know it was hard for him because he knows what type of
16:46player I was, what I would be able to do in the right system, the right guys around me.
16:51It was hard just going through high school, just knowing that I may never get a chance
16:58to play on a Power 5 stage, even play on a JUCO stage, because I had my mind set at that
17:04point in time that I was going JUCO.
17:06My dad was talking to the OC at Kilgore College, so I had my mind set on going there and, you
17:11know, seeing what happens when I get there.
17:14It was frustrating seeing that, you know, he wasn't getting recruited because I kept saying
17:20I've never seen a talent like this guy.
17:21His arm is unbelievable.
17:24I got one offer.
17:25As soon as I got that one offer from UIW, I knew where I was going to offer it.
17:31One offer.
17:33And in Cameron Anthony Ward's case, that was all he needed.
17:37I remember the first time I met Cam Ward was, uh, we were warming up for just a normal
17:42June camp in one of those hot summer days of San Antonio where it's 110 degrees.
17:49We're going through just warm-ups at the time.
17:51And my quarterback coach, Coach Lefwich, runs over to me because, you know, I have a prospect
17:56list of 350 guys on it and have every position on it, and I'm highlighting guys and taking
18:02notes of guys I need to go in and put my eyes on and evaluate because we usually throw out
18:07a number of offers after these camps.
18:09And Coach Lefwich runs over and he names off Cam's number that he was associated with in
18:15the camp and said, hey, Coach, you've got to watch this kid throw when you get a chance.
18:19And so I highlight him on my sheet so they're warming up.
18:23And so I walk down and Cam's taking a little three-step drop as he warms up and the ball's
18:29just spinning out of there like none other.
18:31And the pop that he had, the rotation that he had, was something just when you see a talent
18:36like that.
18:36And I'd been around Patrick Mahomes for the previous three or four years, so it's not like,
18:41hey, I didn't know it when I saw it.
18:42You know, we had Baker Mayfield, Davis Webb, and Patrick Mahomes were the three quarterbacks
18:47I dealt with the three years prior to that.
18:50So right off the bat, it jumps out.
18:52And so I'm following him around the rest of practice.
18:56At the end of camp, we always like to do a couple drills where we put them through some
19:00tough throws.
19:00So, you know, we throw a field comeback.
19:03You know, we throw some deep posts and throw some, you know, deep out-cutting routes that
19:08help to throw across the field.
19:09Never forget just coaches kind of look at each other as Cam, you know, knocks out these
19:14three throws like, who the heck is this kid and why is he here and why did we not know
19:18about him?
19:19The talent was there.
19:21It was something that from then on, we started really digging into him, started reaching
19:26out to Coach Van Meter, was a guy that was one of his high school trainers, a high school
19:31coach of his that has, you know, developed a ton of quarterbacks, had seen it, and, you
19:36know, on the phone with Coach Van Meter, hey, what are we missing here?
19:39What's going on?
19:40And, you know, he's laughing.
19:41He's like, listen, I train with him, you know, on the weekends.
19:45I watch him in seven-on-seven.
19:47He's as talented as any kid I've ever seen in high school.
19:49I was having dinner one night with my wife, and I get a phone call.
19:53I didn't know who it was, but I answered anyway, and it was Coach Eric Morris at Incarnate
19:57Word.
19:58And he said, Coach, this is Eric Morris.
20:00We're here.
20:00I got my whole staff in here, and we're doing, you know, some evaluations.
20:05He said, I know you've had some good quarterbacks through your past.
20:09Tell me what you think about Cam Ward.
20:12And I said, well, Coach, no offense, and to be quite honest, if Cam Ward was in my offense
20:17or any other spread offense, you guys wouldn't have a chance, said Cam Ward.
20:21And he started laughing.
20:22The whole room started laughing.
20:23He said, that's exactly what, you know, what we were talking about in here.
20:27We, you know, we feel like we're getting a major steal.
20:29I said, well, you are.
20:31And, you know, and I added the fact that, you know, you're also getting a kid as, I think,
20:35number one in this class, and, you know, is a very poised and a respectful young man.
20:41All Cam Ward needed was an opportunity to prove what he had as a quarterback.
20:47Coach Morris saw the raw talent, saw the same type of things that he saw with Patrick Holmes,
20:54saw Cam Ward as an untapped resource, and said, I can recreate this with this young man.
21:01And then Conant Warrior was a program that needed a spark because they played in a very tough
21:06Southland conference.
21:07You're talking about some legitimate blue bloods in that conference from, at the time,
21:11Sam Houston, McNeese, Nichols.
21:14So you have a lot of these programs that were legit blue blood FCS programs.
21:19And here's your opportunity, kid.
21:21You feel like you're a Division I player?
21:23Here's a Division I program.
21:25Yes, it's the FCS.
21:26Yes, it's kind of unheard of.
21:27No one knows where Incarnate Word is.
21:29They probably think you lied to them, talking about you go to Incarnate Word, like,
21:32stop playing with me, that type of thing.
21:34But here's a guy that shows up day one as a freshman and got busy.
21:39Let's.
21:40Word fires.
21:41Caught.
21:42Farrell.
21:43Touchdown.
21:43Touchdown.
21:44How you going to enter the stadium?
21:46Feel with your enemies screaming your name?
21:48How you going to act when their feelings get jaded?
21:49Because of the accolades, reach with the fame.
21:51How you going to hit them and pick up the pace?
21:53Don't let it slow you down.
21:54Enough for you to go and win.
21:55But don't get it twisted.
21:56Don't never let nobody eat off your plate.
21:57This is the hustle for minimum wage.
21:59All of them cold summers freezing at home water.
22:01If I ever make it out of them no struggles.
22:03The things that they hold from us.
22:05Look at the score.
22:05They ain't question those numbers.
22:07Take that what they stole from us.
22:08Let me listen to the bank.
22:10Now they calling me a great.
22:11Turn it up.
22:11Turn it up.
22:12What's up we go?
22:13We go.
22:14We go.
22:14We go.
22:15We go.
22:15We go.
22:16We go.
22:17We go.
22:18We go.
22:19We go.
22:20We go.
22:21We go.
22:22We go.
22:23We go.
22:24We go.
22:25We go.
22:26We go.
22:27We go.
22:28We go.
22:29We go.
22:30We go.
22:31We go.
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