The Dallas Cowboys do not plan to honor former first-round pick Micah Parsons on Sunday as he makes his return to AT&T Stadium for the first time since his trade to the Green Bay Packers. However, they are honoring former Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark.
The Cowboys announced on Friday that Clark will serve as the Captain of the Week, joining season-long captains Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Osa Odighizuwa, Donovan Wilson, Brandon Aubrey and C.J. Goodwin.
“In talking to some of their coaches in passing since the trade, they’ve said how much they miss Kenny as a man, as a teammate, and his play style,” head coach Brian Schottenheimer told reporters on Friday while announcing Clark’s captaincy. “So happy to have Kenny.”
Clark played for the Packers for nine seasons before coming to Dallas in a trade for Parsons and several draft picks. He was a three-time Pro Bowler while wearing the green and gold, and he says seeing those colors lined up across from him will be “weird” on Sunday.
“It’ll definitely be weird when I’m out there,” Clark said. “You’ll see those yellow helmets and be like, ‘Damn, I was just over there.'”
The new Cowboys defensive tackle has already planned out his post-game jersey swap with linebacker Rashan Gary. Another former teammate, tight end Tucker Kraft had only the best things to say about Clark before the Sunday night matchup.
“Kenny Clark was kind of that person people would look to in the sense of, what do we need to do? He was a walking standard,” Kraft said.
Getting traded was a shock to Clark. There was barely a week left in the offseason before he had to pack up his stuff in Green Bay and move it down to Dallas. He moved into a house in DFW that he selected off of his phone and tried to reassure family members that this is just how it goes in this business.
“My mom was hot. My mom was hot,” Clark said, via Ryan Wood. “My girl, my brothers, they were all pretty emotional about it. I had to explain to them, everybody gets this call if you play long enough.”
Clark has played a long time, and the former first-rounder is still playing at a high level. He has 10 tackles through three games this season, including one sack and one tackle for loss. He’ll be playing against the Packers on Sunday, but he still intends to play all out for a Cowboys win.
“It is a real connection but at the end of the day we trying to get to 1-0,” he said. “It’s not about me. It’s about the Cowboys getting a win. I’m going to do everything in my power for us to do that.”
