IRVING, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys face the Cleveland Browns on Sunday afternoon. For fullback Lawrence Vickers, facing his former team will be personal.
Vickers was a 2006 sixth-round pick by the Browns before leaving after the 2010 season. There are 18 players left over from the rosters from when Vickers was in Cleveland.
"It's personal, why wouldn't it be?," Vickers said after Thursday's practice. "It anybody tells you it ain't never personal when they playing their old team they're lying to you. It's always personal. They just keep it quiet. Of course it's personal. It's not like, oh, I just got to get them or nothing like that. But I'm going to take it personal because I'm playing against my old teammates and my old organization, and I want to win."
Vickers said he's not upset at the Browns in any fashion and the breakup between the two sides was fine.
But Vickers views beating Cleveland more personally than Houston, the team he played for last season.
"The Texans weren't a set a place for me," he said. "Cleveland was home. I was there five years, I gave that organization a lot and I got a lot and I got a lot from them, and I appreciate them for even drafting me. It's personal to a sense, it's like playing your family. Whenever you play against family you want bragging rights."
Vickers said he's not surprised by all the upheaval in Cleveland. He named the seven starting quarterbacks and the two head coaches, Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini, he played with and for in Cleveland.
More changes are forthcoming for the Browns apparently, given that they have a new owner in Jimmy Haslam and the president Mike Holmgren is departing.
"I'm not surprised about the change," he said. "You got to get something and stick with it, and if other stuff keeps switching then other things are going to switch, that's the way it goes. You switch owners, then you're gonna switch coaches. Other coaches are gonna want different types of players and want to put their scheme in there. So whenever they get settle in, it will be awhile, when they get settled in it will be alright."