In 1989, Dallas Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones traded the face of the franchise, Herschel Walker, in one of the more notable trades in NFL history. Thursday, 36 years later, Jones dealt his most recent face of the franchise, Micah Parsons, to the Green Bay Packers.
Jones and Parsons failed to reach an agreement on a long-term contract extension, leading to Parsons publicly requesting a trade. Initially, the Cowboys had no intention of honoring that request. Seven days out from the Week 1 regular season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles, Jones pulled the trigger and sent Parsons packing. Cowboys legend Michael Irvin said it’s hurting Jones deeply not having Parsons.
“I promise you guys, Jerry was hurt,” Irvin said on Friday’s First Take. “All of this — I’m shocked, I’m surprised, because Jerry always says he has a great propensity for these kinds of things and he can stare it right down the barrel and obviously, there’s no doubt, Jerry was hurt. Saw it when I watched the interview… I love him very much. I know what he wanted with Micah Parsons, and I know not having him — it’s hurting him deeply. And I believe it’s hurting Micah deeply.
“I heard Dan [Orlovsky] say, ‘Oh, Micah was happy to leave.’ No, no, no — that would not be true. The emotions got all tumbled up in this whole thing and it became a place where he wasn’t happy to leave, Micah was happy to receive the money he was getting where he was going, but if you give him that money, he’d rather stay here. That’s the reality.”
Jerry Jones does it again: Cowboys owner trades another face of the franchise in Micah Parsons
Parsons, 26, was traded to the Packers in exchange for two first-round picks and three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark. Green Bay and Parsons’ agent worked quickly on a deal, which made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history. Parsons signed a four-year, $188 million contract with $136 million guaranteed.
Irvin placed blame on himself for failing to get in between Jones and Parsons when trying to navigate a new contract agreement between the two parties: “Don’t think I haven’t put that on my own self. I kept thinking ‘is Jerry serious?’ Maybe I should have went and got that thing done for real. I absolutely have thought about that, and I swear to you this makes no rhyme and no reason. [Parsons] was reaching out to me. He was crying out and I missed it.
“I should’ve jumped in the middle of it even deeper and better and I’m hurt for it. There’s no doubt in my mind. All that Jerry’s saying about them being better is not true. That reminds me of the documentary where his dad said, ‘Make it look like you know what you’re doing even when it’s not working.’ That’s what I came up with. It’s not true.”