Clark leaves NFL on his own terms

CEDAR RAPIDS - Dallas Clark said he'd rather roll around with his kids than roll the dice.

So it was that the player widely considered the Iowa Hawkeyes' top tight end of all-time retired from the NFL last month after an 11-year career.

Clark left on his terms, not the NFL's. His services were still in demand, but for the first time, the feeling wasn't mutual.

'I think after last season I had a good idea,” Clark said Monday before participating at the Zach Johnson Foundation Classic. 'I just kind of had a feeling. As time went, things added up where it was the right thing.

'The risk/reward wasn't there anymore, health-wise. At this stage of the game, I've got two boys (5-year-old Dane and 3-year-old Camden) I can wrestle with, play with. I kind of want to start valuing my health and just realize it's been a blessing being able to play 11 years and feel as good as I do, and I don't want to roll the dice anymore.”

An NFL team called to express interest in signing Clark for this season. 'That's when the decision was real,” he said. 'I told my agent to tell them I'm retired. It was a weird thing to do, but it was the right thing to do.”

Here's how highly regarded Clark by the Indianapolis Colts: After spending his first nine seasons there, he played a year at Tampa Bay and another for Baltimore. But the Colts signed him to a 1-day contract last month so he could retire as a Colt, and the Colts' organization held a press conference to send him off in style.

The gratitude went both ways. Clark found a professional home. He and his family continue to live in Indianapolis, though he says he wants to eventually relocate in Iowa. And Clark is the Colts' all-time leader in catches (427) and receiving touchdowns (46) for a tight end.

Clark had four catches for Indianapolis when it won the Super Bowl seven years ago. Indianapolis remembers.

But time moves on.

'I don't think it will really sink in until August, September,” Clark said, 'the days with everyone else working and I'm at home. I think that's when it really sets in, and it'll be hard or joyful, I don't know.

'I know on Mondays it'll be a lot easier to get out of bed.

Clark will forever be one of the most unlikely and remarkable football success stories from Iowa. He arrived in Iowa City a walk-on linebacker from a tiny town called Livermore. He left college an All-America tight end, on his way to a splendid pro career.

Many longtime players become coaches. Clark didn't make it sound like that's a likelihood for him.

'I won't be a head coach,” he said. 'I know what tight ends do. But calling timeouts and things like that ...

'I definitely wouldn't coach in college. You couldn't pay me to do that. Their schedules are miserable. I love my family and I want to be around them. That is not on the option list.

'Maybe doing camps or just helping kids on the side with some techniques and things like that, yeah, I see that. But just getting fully into coaching, I don't think I'm that guy.”

Clark will ride RAGBRAI later this month, and then proceed to the sideline when football season arrives.

'Having a weekend in the fall sounds pretty inviting,” he said. 'I haven't had one of those in a long, long, long time.”

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