Jerry Jones yet again made the Micah Parsons trade about something other than him and his feelings on Tuesday. But Parsons' ultimate success with Green Bay could well ding not only the PR battle, but Jerry's legacy.
In many installments, Jerry Jones has succeeded in making the Micah Parsons trade about someone other than Jerry Jones.
The (thus far) complete rendition of “It Wasn’t Me,” from the Dallas Cowboys team owner:
Volume 1, late July: A month before the trade unfolded between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers, the lack of a contract extension for Parsons was the player’s fault. The organization was leaking a singular message that if Parsons had simply stuck to a March 18 verbal negotiation struck in Jerry’s office — without the presence agent David Mulugheta — Parsons would have an extension with the Cowboys.
Volume 2, August 21: The lack of a deal was now Mulugheta’s fault. Jerry tells former Cowboys star Michael Irvin on his podcast: “When we wanted to send [contract extension] details to the agent, the agent told us to stick it up our ass.” Jones then added context later in the day with reporters, stating “We were going to send it over to the agent and the agent said don’t bother because we’ve got all that to negotiate. Well, I’d already negotiated. I’d already moved off my mark on several areas. And so the issue is frankly that we already had the negotiation in my mind, and now the agent is trying to stick his nose in it.”
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Volume 3, August 28: The day Parsons was finally traded, it was all about (take your pick) the Cowboys needing to shore up a run defense; wanting the flexibility to pay several other players on the roster; coveting the draft capital being offered by the Packers; and again, Parsons going back on a previous one-on-one negotiation and involving his agent, Mulugheta.
Volume 4, Sept. 26: On the doorstep of facing Parsons and the Packers, it was Parsons’ lacking performance against the run and the fact that “[W]e didn’t exactly win the Super Bowl” with him. Note for context and clarity here: The only Cowboys players to win Super Bowls since January 28, 1996 (29 years, eight months and two days ago) are the ones who left Dallas to accomplish it elsewhere.
Volume 5, Sept. 28: Moments after a 40-40 tie with the Packers that saw the Green Bay (and Dallas) defense break down repeatedly, Jerry moved to frame the Parsons trade through a Dak Prescott prism. He paid Dak. He didn’t pay Micah. Dak had one of his best games of the season against the Packers. The Packers’ defense struggled despite the presence of Micah. It was the ultimate opportunity for Jerry to make a point about why he paid Dak but didn’t pay Micah. “It’s very simple,” Jerry said. “Dak was indispensable, in my mind. … And Micah wasn’t.”
Finally, the most recent installment came on Tuesday.
Volume 6, Sept. 30: Once again trying to show it wasn’t about Jerry or his feelings but rather about Parsons and everyone else, the Cowboys owner responded to his former star pass rusher’s criticism that Jerry didn’t call him to inform him of his trade to Green Bay. Appearing on his team’s flagship station 105.3 The Fan, Jones framed it as Parsons’ fault, stating “I really don’t want to respond to that at all” … then went on to respond with … “But that phone call thing got stopped when he told me to take his number off my dial. So don’t call him anymore. So I quit those calls.”
This is how you win the hearts and minds of fans after parting ways with a popular player. You dust off your old fire-Jimmy-Johnson public relations manual and make the decision about every other justification pushing you — but never about you. Something like, “Sure, I might be the one who made the ultimate decision, but how could I have made a different choice in the face of all this mounting evidence?”
While you do this, you make sure to avoid the one titanic piece of ugliness that isn’t going away. Specifically, a Cowboys defense that has been absolutely horrendous rushing the passer and preventing chunk pass plays. The same one that gave up 40 points to a Green Bay offense that is a collection of good-but-not-elite parts. And the same one that is now 31st in the league in scoring defense, with opponents averaging 33 points a game this season.
That is the part of the Micah Parsons ledger you don’t talk about. You remind people that while the run defense might be 20th in the league in yards surrendered, you played two overtime games and what really matters is the yards-per-carry average (tied for 10th in the NFL at 4.0 per carry). You keep talking about help being “on the way” in the form of injured linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, as if there’s no uncertainty about how he’ll respond to playing on a significant knee reconstruction repairing his ACL, MCL and PCL. Let alone Overshown being scheduled to return in late November, when Dallas’ playoff hopes could be on fumes or worse. And you also keep pointing at the Packers and subtly shade Micah Parsons as being part of a defense that just gave up a ton of offense.
You most definitely ride the very telling silver (plated) lining of a 40-40 tie against the Packers, which actually feels like a Cowboys win — simply because most people thought Green Bay was going to come in and throttle Dallas. Which the Packers did on offense. But hush your mouth on that last part.
Here’s the reality: Jerry is throwing everything he can at justifying the Micah Parsons trade because it may very well end up being the biggest talent move he’s made since cutting loose Jimmy Johnson. And if Parsons wins a Super Bowl with the Packers, it might even be the kind of thing that puts a little ding into Jerry’s legacy. With the Cowboys owner closer to his football end than his football beginning, that matters.
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It’s why the Cowboys brass’ and so many of their friends throughout the NFL pushed to get Jerry into the Hall of Fame in 2017. It’s why he dedicated several years of his life to making what he hopes will be a lasting narrative-shaping Netflix documentary. And it’s why he doesn’t want the Parsons trade to be attached to his owner and general manager ego in any way whatsoever. Because it’s been nearly 30 years since he’s won a Super Bowl and those three decades of coming up short is starting to become the only thing that anyone really talks about anymore.
Stop and think about that for a moment. This time next year, there are going to be 30-year-old Cowboys fans who are walking around with no earthly idea what a Cowboys Super Bowl feels like. And they’ll have every right to wonder why Jerry talks about it like he’s obsessed with obtaining it, yet has never come remotely close in their lifetime.
But what they will know is that Dallas traded Micah Parsons away and the defense got a hell of a lot worse in the immediate aftermath. Sure, Dallas didn’t win a Super Bowl with Micah Parsons. But imagine some of the other players who didn’t, either. Tony Romo. Jason Witten. Zack Martin. Tyron Smith. Travis Frederick. Roy Williams. Dez Bryant. Ezekiel Elliott. Jay Ratliff. Sean Lee.
Not to mention every single player on this current Cowboys roster. None of them has won a Super Bowl with Jerry Jones.
Ware had 10 sacks in 2014 and made a Pro Bowl for the Denver Broncos. In 2015, he won a Super Bowl in Denver and sacked Cam Newton twice on the game’s biggest stage. In 2023, Jerry presented Ware at his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Looking back, Jerry justified a Ware mistake that was clear in hindsight. At the time, the fan base accepted it as the business decision that had to be made, because Ware was too old and too expensive. Now Parsons was just too expensive. Or too bad against the run. Or had too persistent an agent. Or just won too few Super Bowls in his first four years.
So far, it’s been a whole lot of someone or something else and not a lot of Jerry in Jerry’s own analysis. Eventually, where Parsons goes from here will matter as much as where the Cowboys don’t. And that will be the final and most meaningful installment of this whole affair.
Category: General Sports
