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.
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
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