Troy Aikman expects 'great deal of emotion' for Cowboys playing for Marshawn Kneeland vs. Raiders

Troy Aikman believes the Dallas Cowboys will honor Marshawn Kneeland in a big way during their game against the Las Vegas Raiders. While appearing on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown, Aikman weighed in on how the Cowboys will play after the death of Kneeland.

“I fully expect them to come out and play with a great deal of emotion in order to honor his memory,” Troy Aikman said. “By all accounts, Brian Schottenheimer and the entire organization, the Jones family as well, handled everything exceptionally well. I do think that bye week allowed them to grieve and kind of ease back into kind of get back out on to the practice field. 

“Once you get out on the practice field, as these guys know, that’s when your life tends back to normalcy. That’s what will happen here tonight, but I fully expect this team to play with a lot of emotion.”

More on Troy Aikman and Marshawn Kneeland

Marshawn Kneeland died on Nov. 6 at the age of 24. The defensive lineman was in his second season with the Cowboys after playing college football at Western Michigan. Kneeland played in 18 games and registered 26 tackles and one sack. In his final NFL game, Kneeland scored a touchdown off a blocked punt.

When Aikman appeared on NFL Live on ESPN last week, he said the Cowboys would play well on Monday. “I think that for a lot of NFL players, for a lot of athletes in general, when they have tragedy like this, the only thing that brings any sense of normalcy to them is when they get back on the practice field or in this case, on Monday night in the game,” he said. “This gives them something to play for and honor his memory. So, I expect them to come out and play exceptionally well. I like the way the Jones family and the Cowboys organization, and everyone involved, has handled it. How they respond, I would expect they would respond pretty favorably by the simple fact of what he meant to everyone.”