In what has now become typical Dallas Cowboys fashion, team owner Jerry Jones has created a disaster within his own franchise.
Only this time it may have just cost the team their best player.
Following a lengthy contract dispute that has expanded for over a year now, Cowboys superstar edge rusher Micah Parsons has officially requested a trade from the team. To make things worse, it is a situation that could have easily been avoided had Jones and his son, COO Stephen Jones, simply negotiated his extension like a normal NFL franchise.
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But now, it might be too late, and if it is, there will be no one to blame but Jerry and Stephen themselves.
To understand where the issues began with Parsons and the Cowboys, all you need to do is go back to the last two star-level deals that the Joneses attempted to negotiate – Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb.
In each of those scenarios, Jerry and Stephen waited far too long to begin productive contract negotiations with each player, causing friction within the organization. And by the time deals were struck, the price was driven up to albatross-type numbers, with Prescott becoming the highest-paid quarterback in NFL history, despite a history of injuries and failure in postseason play, and Lamb one of the highest-paid players at his position in the league.
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In other words, had the Cowboys just approached things as a normal franchise, and agreed to a deal on a proper timeline, not only could they have saved themselves millions upon millions of dollars, but avoided the bevy of negative media attention and the team friction behind closed doors.
Despite that, the Joneses didn’t learn from their mistakes. In fact, they began to make more, with avoiding discussions with Parsons’ agent – the person who is responsible for protecting Parsons’ future interests – and even attempting to negotiate a deal with the star edge rusher in secret from that agent.
Then, instead of attempting to repair the critical relationship between player, agent, and franchise, each Jones doubled down and attacked Parsons in the media in their own way. Jerry attacked – inaccurately, mind you – Parsons’ health and injury history. He also made a fool out of himself with his comments to the media about agent David Mulugheta.
Meanwhile, Stephen made his own public sideshow and gaslighted his way to claims that Parsons “had to want to be paid, too.”
MORE: CeeDee Lamb reacts to Micah Parsons’ trade request after Cowboys’ fumble
All the while, Parsons reported to camp, took the abuse from the Joneses in the media, said all the right things, and tried his best to fill his role as a leader on the football team. In fact, by the end, he was being painted as a victim in the situation.
And how was he rewarded? With the kind of stubbornness, hubris, and disrespect from a front office that you typically see from a child arguing with his parents about his bedtime.
With that in mind, it becomes easy to see why Parsons has finally reached his boiling point and demanded an end to his time playing for a front office that doesn’t seem to care about his health or his well-being.
Now, there is no telling whether the situation will, in fact, end in a trade, or if this will kickstart negotiations and result in Parsons signing a long-term deal. Odds are, it will be the former rather than the latter, and Parsons will find his way to a team that will actually treat him as a valuable member of their organization, rather than a disposable tool.
Regardless of what ends up happening, however, Jerry and Stephen have put themselves in this situation thanks to their own misguided actions, and if Cowboys fans are going to be angry at anyone in this situation, the finger needs to be pointed at them.
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