When the national viewing audience shifts to Dallas on Sunday night, all eyes will be trained on the man wearing No. 1 for the Green Bay Packers.
Micah Parsons won't be the only player carrying extra emotion to the field at AT&T Stadium, though; former longtime Packer Kenny Clark is also meeting his former team for the first time since Green Bay sent him packing (pun unintended) for Texas.
There are pros and cons to this game for Clark. On one hand, the new Cowboys defensive tackle has to play against the only uniform he knew over his first nine NFL seasons. On the other hand, he finally gets a chance to hunt down quarterback Jordan Love.
"Yeah, you get to hit now," Clark said Wednesday while smiling when considering the prospect of hitting his former teammate, via the team's official site. "I'm excited, bro. I'm excited. It's been a long time coming and it's definitely something I've been thinking about since I got traded here. I'm excited to go."
Clark was very candid about how shocked he was by the trade that sent him to a new home, admitting he never considered the possibility of being shipped elsewhere, especially not just before the start of the regular season.
"That's probably the most shocked I've ever been in my life," Clark said, via The Athletic's Jon Machota. "Of course I heard the rumors that the Packers were going to trade for Micah and all that stuff, but I never thought it was gonna be me that was gonna be traded. It is what it is."
Understandably, the emotions are still raw for Clark. In a cruel twist of scheduling fate, he barely received a month's worth of time to process the significant change before being asked to suit up against his former teammates with plenty on the line.
As for those former teammates, don't expect Clark to go out of his way to say hello. There are pads to crack and ball-carriers to take down, and Clark can't afford to lighten up for even a second.
"When it's game-time, I'm in the game," he said. "If those guys want to come up, I ain't seeking it out. It's all love and they know it's all love. After the game or before the game, we can do that, but I ain't seeking out for nothing. I'm trying to win the game. ... I'm here to win. I'm gonna play my ass off and do everything I can for us to get a win."
The build-up to the game will properly revolve around Parsons and the television cameras will stalk him from the moment he steps off the visiting team's bus and walks into the bowels of AT&T Stadium. In the other locker room, the other player affected by Parsons' trade will be gearing up for his own pursuit of revenge.
