Milk Carton All-Star of the Week

With our thinking caps well-worn, we went back to the Kenny well once again for a suggestion for this week's Milk Carton All-Star of the Week. Hey, we'll take help where we can get it.

Let's face it, when rattling off the names of successful Asian athletes in recent memory, you wouldn't expect the name Dat Nguyen to come up. However, once you get past the Ichiros and the Yaos and the Michael Changs, Nguyen is on the short list(no pun intended) of stars from the Far East to make it big in America.

Nguyen was a 3rd round pick of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1999 NFL Draft out of Texas A &M. Oddly enough, Nguyen was the Aggies successor to another diminuitive middle linebacker, future Hall of Famer Zach Thomas. At 5'11, 238 pounds, Nguyen wasn't exactly imposing. That didn't stop Nguyen from being a tackling machine while with the Cowboys, even notching an All-Pro nod in 2003. He had 100+ tackles in three of the five seasons he started with Dallas. Inevitably, he retired in 2005 and returned to Dallas as an assistant linebackers coach with the team under Wade Phillips. Earlier this year, Dat went back to his alma mater to take the same position with the Aggies.

So what is someone as accomplished as Nguyen doing as a Milk Carton All-Star? Well, because he's Charlie Anonymous. As great as the numbers look, when's the last time you had a conversation about Dat Nguyen? When's the last time his name even came up in a conversation except by accident when saying either "Who Dat" or "Crank Dat Soulja Boy"? Truth be told, I didn't even know that Dat Nguyen wasn't the same kid who played Harry Ioki on "21 Jumpstreet"(Turns out, that was Dustin Nguyen....thanks, IMDB!) until about two years ago. Regardless, with the continent of Asia preparing to get its tail handed to them in the World Cup next month, we felt it was right to give our buddies on the Far East a little face time.

So let's give it up for the the Vietnamese Dexter Coakley......Dat Nguyen, everybody!