Kalen Thornton

Kalen Bruce Thornton (born May 12, 1982 in Dallas, Texas) he is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys. He played American football at the University of Texas.

Thornton graduated from St. Mark's School of Texas. He played college football for the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a four-year starter, as well as an Academic All-Big 12 student-athlete.

Thornton was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Dallas Cowboys after the 2004 NFL Draft. He was converted into an outside linebacker and posted 8 defensive tackles and 13 special teams tackles.

In 2005, he was expected to compete for the starting job against rookie DeMarcus Ware, but he suffered a left knee injury in training camp that required career-ending microfracture surgery and was placed on the injured reserve list. On May 31, 2006, he was waived injure after not been able to recover from his previous knee injury.

Following his professional football career, Thornton spent time in private wealth management for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney until 2009 before matriculating at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He currently works as a marketing director at Nike.

His father Bruce Thornton also played football in the NFL for the Dallas Cowboys, while his brother Kyle played for Texas and then for University of North Alabama. His youngest brother Kenton, also starred for St. Mark's before doing a post-graduate year at Blair Academy, where he was prep offensive player of the year in New Jersey before playing the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and also transferring to University of North Alabama.