DENVER — Calvin Ward couldn’t take it anymore. He stood up abruptly from his seat at Empower Field at Mile High, walked over to the stadium aisle and leaned on the railing in frustration, his head facing the ground.
Calvin Ridley had just dropped a perfect pass from his son, Titans quarterback Cam Ward, on a second-and-10 on what became Tennessee’s final drive in the team’s regular-season opener against the Broncos on Sunday. On the next play, tight end Chig Okonkwo also couldn’t make the catch; Ward’s third-down throw appeared to be a bit ahead of Okonkwo, but the ball hit his hands.
Calvin Ward, walking back over to his seat, put his hands on his head.
“That was catchable, right?” he asked out loud, speaking to no one in particular.
Then came the desperate final play: fourth-and-10 with 47 seconds left, Titans trailing 20-12 with no timeouts. Unblocked, Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian sacked Ward on a blitz, forcing a fumble that Denver recovered.
Ball game.
“If they caught the ball,” exclaimed Patrice Ward, Cam’s mother, “we wouldn’t even be in this situation.”
This is Calvin and Patrice Ward in a nutshell, watching their son play football. Their facial expressions belie the emotions beneath the surface. They’re locked into the game, every game. They’re competitive and intense, similar to Cam. Friends and family know not to come chatting when they’re watching their son because, as Calvin says, “We not listening.”
Calvin and Patrice Ward let me shadow them on Sunday as they watched their son, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 draft, make his NFL debut. He went 12-of-28 for 112 yards and took six sacks in Tennessee’s loss to the Broncos. Despite the frustrating defeat, Cam’s parents left Denver encouraged about his future, feeling that he belongs. And as parents, they couldn’t be more proud of him — to get to this point after once being a zero-star recruit coming out of high school.
“He’s going out there and showing that he’s an NFL player,” Patrice said. “He can hang with anybody.”
Cam Ward didn’t throw any touchdowns in his NFL debut, but he also didn’t throw any interceptions, and he led the Titans on three scoring drives. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)
‘I was driving like 95 miles per hour’
Calvin and Patrice have never missed one of their son’s games — from his Pee Wee football days in West Columbia, Texas, through his five-year college career that included stops at Incarnate Word, Washington State and Miami.
It always meant a lot to Calvin when his family came to his high school football games. He’d look for familiar faces in the stands. He told himself that when he had kids, he’d do everything possible to make sure he was always present.
“It wasn’t just Cameron, it was with my other kids, too,” Calvin said of his four children. “We were there.”
After shining at Incarnate Word, Washington State was Cam’s school of choice. His UIW coach, Eric Morris, had been named the Cougars’ offensive coordinator. But Cam didn’t want to go to Pullman, Wash., more than 2,200 miles from home, if it meant his parents couldn’t come to the games. He was OK settling for a school closer to home. But the message back to him was simple: Go where you want to go, and we’ll figure it out.
That came with logistical challenges, particularly at Washington State. Home games meant a layover en route to Spokane, Wash., and then Calvin and Patrice would have to drive an hour and 15 minutes to get to Pullman — “if the weather was good,” Patrice explained. It could take up to two hours. They’d typically arrive at their hotel around 2 or 3 a.m. Friday morning, the day before the game.
Catching Cam’s games at Washington State meant long trips from Texas and early morning arrivals, but his parents never missed a kickoff. (Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images)
Wear and tear was a very real factor when traveling every weekend during the season, too. Calvin works at a nuclear plant outside West Columbia, and Patrice coached girls’ basketball at Columbia High School for more than two decades.
“His first year at Washington State, we traveled to Oregon for the Oregon State game. … They had a bye week that following week,” Calvin said. “If they hadn’t had that bye week, I don’t know if we could’ve [made the next game]. We were just worn out.”
But Calvin and Patrice always pushed through the challenges. There was never a point where they thought they couldn’t make one of Cam’s 57 college games.
Patrice has had some close calls, though. One came while she was still coaching. On the morning of one of Cam’s home games at Incarnate Word in San Antonio, she had a basketball tournament in West Columbia, more than three hours away by car. Patrice dashed over to UIW as soon as the tournament wrapped.
She got there by halftime.
“I was driving like 95 miles per hour,” Patrice laughed.
‘Cameron is going to figure it out’
During the Titans-Broncos pregame, Calvin and Patrice took a photo with their son and nephew, Titans safety Quandre Diggs. Offensive coordinator Nick Holz and running backs coach Randy Jordan were among the Tennessee staffers to say hello. Darrell Colbert, Ward’s private quarterbacks coach, spent time with the family as well.
Between those interactions, Calvin watched the Titans warm up. Meanwhile, Cam’s sisters, Aaliyah and Chantel, as well as his longtime girlfriend, Nailah, soaked in every second on the sideline.
Calvin (No. 1) and Patrice (on Calvin’s left) with the Cam Ward entourage before his NFL debut in Denver. (Photo by Ben Arthur)
About 30 minutes before kickoff, a security guard informed them it was time to go to their seats.
I asked Calvin and Patrice what they were feeling as their son was about to make his NFL debut.
Calvin admitted feeling “excitement for him” but quickly shifted his focus to his son’s task at hand.
“Cameron is going to figure it out,” he said.
Calvin and Patrice met with Cam that morning and the night before, just as they always did before his college games. Typically, Cam would bring his team iPad — “We can’t go to a normal dinner and just sit down and talk as a family,” Patrice says — and Calvin would go over all the plays with him. Patrice would ask him what his goal was for the game.
Ahead of Cam’s NFL debut, though, Calvin didn’t go over all the plays with his son. He just asked him what the first play was. When Patrice asked him what his goal was against the Broncos, Cam simply said that he was “ready to go.”
He played like it, too.
It started on the Titans’ first drive. On third-and-11, he flashed some of the magic that made his Miami tape special. Ward stepped up in the pocket, shook a would-be sack with his upper-body strength and flicked a pass to running back Tony Pollard in the flat for a 29-yard gain.
Ward led three scoring drives in the first half.
“He’s playing with a lot of poise right now. He’s pretty much controlling the offense,” Calvin said at halftime. “For a rookie, I’m happy how he’s managing everything — especially this type of environment, too.
“Just have to get some touchdowns.”
They didn’t come.
Ward had his mistakes — his back-to-back sacks early in the fourth quarter lost a combined 27 yards, squandering a special teams takeaway — but they were an afterthought in a game in which coach Brian Callahan’s game management and playcalling drew heavy scrutiny. The Titans also had critical drops, pass protection lapses and played undisciplined football (13 accepted penalties for 131 yards). They scored just six points off four takeaways.
The No. 1 pick’s promise was overshadowed by the shortcomings around him.
At the end of the game, a fan sitting in front of Calvin turned to him as he got up to leave. The fan mentioned how much potential Cam has, then added that he had questions about the surrounding talent.
I asked Calvin how he felt about his son’s NFL debut.
“I’m very encouraged,” he told me. “I knew this was going to be a tough game to win.”
Patrice chimed in.
“I see some good things. We made a lot of bad choices out there [as a team],” she said. “This is a good [Broncos] team. If we kept up this close with them, that means we’re getting there, too.
“From game one in the NFL, it’s just going to be a start of this new journey for us,” Patrice added. “Just going to go on this high. This year might not be the best year, but I know after this year, things are going to move up.”
No matter what happens, Patrice and Calvin will be watching, intently, from the stands.
Ben Arthur is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.
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