August 3, 2025 • 23 mins
John Middlekauff reacts to Dallas Cowboys star edge rusher Micah Parsons requesting a trade from the Dallas Cowboys. John explains how owner Jerry Jones has allowed this negotiations to deteriorate, due to not wanting to engage with Parsons' agent, David Mugheleta. John discusses what this means for the Cowboys moving forward, and how the Washington Commanders could be dealing with a similar public fallout due to their similar issue with star wide reciever Terry McLaurin. #Volume
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on? Everybody? How are we doing?
It was Friday at about lunch. I just I've been
(00:23):
busy in the morning, so I was headed out to
the gym, and I get a million texts and Instagram
posts forwarded to me and tweets forwarded to me on
the growing story slash trade request that is Micah Parsons.
So I right around noon on Friday, I did a
(00:43):
little reaction video for YouTube and I said, you know what,
let's post this as well on the podcast feed, so
that this was a reaction I did in relation to
Micah Parsons demanding a trade. The Bravo reality show that
is Jerry Jones and the Cowboys, the ego, the pride
(01:05):
and everything that has gotten the way now of this
negotiation which has gotten really ugly. You know. Now, I'll
discussed in this as well, like that this isn't some
of these other sports where you demand a trade and
you know you're not only getting traded, you're gonna tell
where to go. This is the NFL, and that's the
management has a lot of juice and I don't expect
him necessarily to get traded. But Terry McLaurin, I think
(01:28):
The big winners of the day are the last couple
of days with the Eagles, who I don't know if
you've heard, but they're defending Super Bowl champions and they're
in the division with two teams. Who's best players or
you know Terry's price obviously, after Jade and Mike, I'd say,
is their best player him? And CD that one of
them is demanding a trade now, So this is just
(01:50):
this is this is the NFL and this but more specifically,
this is the Cowboys. So let's dive into some of
the details that that Micah Parsons tweeted out, I don't
want to screw this up. Thank you Dallas. The star
pass rusher has officially asked for a trade. Scary Terry
did it yesterday. The Dallas Cowboys star pass rusher, who
(02:14):
has been wanting a contract, obviously says I wanted to
be here. I did everything I could to show that
I wanted to be a Cowboy and wear the star
in my helmet. I wanted to play in front of
the best fans in sports and make this ameris America's
team once again, the team my pops and I grew
up cheering for way up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, I
(02:35):
no longer want to be here. I no longer want
to be held too close to the door negotiations without
my agent. At present, I'm not going to read the
rest because Michael Parsons wrote a book, but Diana Russini
tweeted yesterday that their relationship has been deteriorating. Clearly, I
think the root of this issue. I've been saying this
(02:56):
for a while. I grew up. My dad was a
little bit older when he had me, and by the
time I was like twenty years old. Most of his
friends late sixties, early seventies, a lot of farmers, a
lot of old school businessmen, very stubborn group, especially the
ones who are still having success late, you know, at
that stage of their life. And I think Jerry, a
(03:17):
guy in his eighties who's extremely prideful in these situations
we have seen from Ceedee Lamb to Dak Prescott, these
dragon forever and ultimately he's paid Dak multiple times. He
paid CD a boat load. For whatever reason, he will
not contact David Mulgeta, who at this point in time
(03:38):
is if not the most powerful agent easily one B
or one C right for a long time, it was
Tom Condon, Drew Rosenhaus, Malgeda and Jerry just doesn't want
to deal with them and refuses to call him, and
obviously Molgeta is not contacting him. So the conversations and
the communications, I mean part of being a GM. I
(03:58):
say this all the time when it come to you know, obviously,
any assistant coach who becomes a head coach, and any
assistant GM or scouting director that becomes the GM, it
is so much more than just sitting in a dark
room and watching tape of potential free agents, of dudes
on practice squads and obviously dudes in college. You are
(04:19):
constantly managing up and dealing with agents. So you're dealing
with the owner and dealing with the agents. No matter
how much you like or dislike that part of the job,
it is a massive part of the job. And now
with these guys, you know, some of the star players,
non quarterbacks in the NFL are getting NBA level contracts
(04:40):
like Micah Parsons would get I would guess one hundred
and forty guaranteed and probably a total value worth of
two hundred million dollars. So you're looking at a player
that if they do not get injured and he plays
at a high level, is gonna see every opinion. I
say this all the time about these quarterbacks. We spend
a lot of time. I mean, I'm guilty of this too,
(05:01):
hammering on the guaranteed money, like how much guaranteed money
Dak got or how much money Ceedee Lamb got. Last
time I checked, Dak's made every penny of every contract,
non guaranteed and guaranteed. If Ceedee Lamb doesn't have a
catastrophic injury, he's gonna see every penny of that contract.
Most of the star players in the NFL are just
going chi ching, chi ching, chi ching all the way
(05:22):
to the bank, non guaranteed, in pro and guaranteed. When
you start falling off a cliff like Russell Wilson, they
throw you to the Wolves rightfully. So I don't want
you on this team. You suck. But most of these players,
all throughout the league, you go through every good team
or every star player, they are seeing every penny of
that contract. But you are talking an enormous amount of money.
(05:44):
I saw this on I think Twitter the other day.
Is this thing went viral of Jerry Jones negotiating with
Dion Sanders back when he signed him in whatever ninety
would have been, probably the spring of ninety five, because
the forty nine Ers won the Super Bowl with the
Sanders in ninety four. They won the Super Bowl like
February of ninety five, so Jerry would have signed him
(06:06):
a couple months later, a month later, and he went
behind Steven who was running the Cap at the time,
I mean the Cap was like two years old, and
just did the deal with Dion and gave Dion I
think thirteen million dollars a signing bonus slash, guaranteed money
up front and basically hit his account and then paid
(06:26):
him the minimum for the next couple of years. And
Stephen Jones is like, what the hell he did? And
Jerry used to be this crazy deal maker doing stuff
like that, this kind of maverick, just doing whatever it took.
Now he's become in a weird way. One anytime you
become old and you are as wealthy as Jerry is,
it is easy to be stubborn. Most guys in their
(06:48):
eighties who have unlimited cash and have a lot of
power and a lot of juice aren't super like open
minded and willing to do things that back in the
day they maybe didn't have to do. And even Dion
was quoted on this video that I saw was like,
this video happened only because me and Jerry worked out
the deal. It was just me and Jerry, you know.
And I think Jerry this old school businessman from the seventies,
(07:11):
the eighties and the nineties, these agents didn't play as
big of a role. Well, times have changed and these
guys are integral parts of these negotiations. And a guy
like Micah Parsons is just very valuable, right, And you're
looking at just an enormous contract. You're seeing TJ. Watt
and Max Crosby get third contracts as pass rushers and
(07:32):
get one hundred plus guaranteed. So a couple of years
ago Nick Bosa got one hundred and twenty five, you're talking,
I mean potentially Michael one hundred and fifty or manufactor
in inflation, the natural growth of the salary cap, the
natural growth of the media. Deals like these are it's
basically a quarterback contract. But Jerry in their front office
has to know this so to get it and make
(07:53):
it this weird. It's like it is it is avoidable.
It really is avoidable. Sometimes you're at an impass negotiations. Right,
they want ten million more than you're willing to pay,
and you just work through it. Right, Money's all relative,
So it could be a five million dollar contract or
it could be a two hundred million dollar contract, and
you work through it. And most of these contracts in
(08:13):
the NFL eventually work themselves out. Some become a little
more contentious than others. But for if I want to
keep you and like Micah wants to be there, we
can figure this out. But when you get in these situations,
clearly it's like there's a lot of ego involved, there's
a lot of personality involved. This becomes less about the
actual money in the actual play on the field and
(08:35):
becomes this circus. And that's what the Dallas Cowboys have
become a circus. So that video of Jerry back in
the mid nineties when he was in his prime as
a businessman, when the Cowboys were in their prime as
a roster and everything was running. I grew up in
northern California and the Niners were a fucking dynasty and
they were the one team that could beat them, and
beat them a lot. And in Jerry obviously his ego
(08:56):
got fired, Jimmy like he had to be a big
part of it. And let's face past ninety six, like
they've had some good regular season teams, but they haven't
done shit. Haven't been to a conference championship. I think
all insane. That is how many teams in the league
over the last ten years haven't been to a conference championship.
Think about the natural turn. The Jags were there not
(09:16):
that long ago, and I think when you look at
this cowboy situation, it all stems back to Jerry right,
because they've proven that they actually can pick pretty good players,
they can build a pretty good team. I mean a
couple of years ago, they had a team that I
thought was worthy of competing for Super Bowl. Now, dak
shited the bed in the second round against the forty
(09:37):
nine ers, but their defense was elite. Dan Quinn had
the defense humming, their offense was pretty damn good and
dak shpited the bed and they lost the forty nine
Ers on the road in a game that was winnable.
And other than that, and even the year before when
they lost the Niners at home, like they had a
really good team. And now you're looking at a team
whose roster's not quite the same, who's very dependent on
some young offensive linemen. I still don't know about their
(09:59):
running backs, but the best player on their team one
of them. See, he's pretty elite to you. Just you
get in these situations and you have a first year
head coach in Brian Schottenheimer that I think it's easy
to shit on the guy. But like the reality and
the facts are, no other team was hiring Brian Schottenheimer
to be their quarterback or be their head coach. Nobody,
(10:21):
you could argue, no one in the league was hiring
him to be their offensive coordinator. And that's who Jerry
made the head coach. I mean sometimes I see Jason
Garrett on television and I go, I don't know who's
hiring this guy, some fucking suit at NBC. Like this
guy doesn't resonate with any of us, Like he's just
he's not very good on television. He's just bad. He
(10:42):
obviously wasn't blow average head coach. I mean, the guy
is it's crazy that he had a job as long
as he did, But he was obviously kind of a
made man in the Dallas Cowboy mop because he's awful
on TV. He was a guy that any Cowboy fan
wanted fired about. You're two into the thing. But somehow
everywhere we look, always Jason Garrett around and that is
the power of the Cowboys. Like people always get very angry.
(11:04):
He's like, why is everyone talking about the Cowboys? Why
is everyone talking about the Cowboys? Because for as crazy
as they haven't won in a long time, they are
a massive brand that does huge numbers. That's not debatable.
It's like, why are the TV shows always talking about Well,
they got these things called metrics, and they can tell
when you're watching and when you're not watching, like they
kind of know what's going on. They would talk about
the Jags if they did the same numbers, but they don't,
(11:26):
so they don't talk about them. It's just a numbers game.
And I think that the Cowboys and Jerry's very egotistical
about that notion of I got the biggest brand, I
got the biggest team. My team generates the most money,
but they never fucking win. And he's a big reason
why you hire average coaches. You always get in these
weird dispute over these players. You never do these contracts right. Meanwhile,
(11:47):
you got the best GM and one of the best
run organizations in your division, who operates the complete opposite
way they I mean, Howie and the Eagles have to
be today or really the last twenty four hours. They
got scary Terry who's demanding to trade and doesn't look
like Washington's gonna pay him. And you got Micah demanding
a trade and who knows how this is gonna play out. Now,
(12:08):
let me say this, I've been talking here for a while.
The NFL is not the NBA. Just because you demand
a trade doesn't mean anyone actually gives a shit and
you actually get traded. We see guys demand trades all
the time and they go nowhere. So I'm not acting
like Micah Parson is going to get traded or Terry
McLaurin is going to get traded. If I was a
betting man, I would bet neither guy gets traded. That's
(12:28):
not the way this league works. This isn't you know,
Kevin Durant or some of these guys. They are like
trade me, and they're like, oh, where do you want
to go? That's not the way this sport works, which
actually becomes more pro fan that way, because you're not
worried like if this was the other sports, baseball or basketball,
you'd be like, he's gone, and that's I do not
expect Michael Parson to be traded, but this is a circus.
(12:49):
And you know Adam Peters, who I've known for a while,
Like I I understood why he made these trades in
the offseason. But I've said before, I do think trading
for Debo. He's making the same money as Terry and Tarry.
He just goes, I just thirteen touchdowns last year. One
I'm underpaid, but two I'm not making the same as
this guy when I've been in this organization. So these
locker room dynamics are a huge part of being the GM.
(13:11):
It's why this offseason, what did Howie Roseman do? Did
he have to pay Saquon? Of course not, but why
did he do it? Because everyone looks around and go,
who's the best player on this team? It's not our quarterback.
Who's the highest paid player on this team? It's our
running back. And we have a team full of stars,
AJ Brown, Blaine Johnson, Like I mean star players, Jalen
(13:31):
Carter who's not eligible to get paid, but like, we
got to take care of this guy because money does
kind of demand respect. Right when you're an elite player,
how much you make, it's all public. This isn't like
most of our jobs, Like, I don't really know how
much this guy makes. This isn't public information. And I
think you look at this situation, it's just always Jerry like. Ultimately,
(13:53):
I think Washington is much more stable now. They will
get this figured out in some form or fashion be like, yeah,
we just don't care, you know. It's like, what are
you gonna do? Now? Call David mulgeta, I apologize. Can
we figure something out? This is anyone who's been part
of negotiations, whether it's negotiating a salary, whether it's negotiations
(14:14):
with a loved one you know, a girlfriend, a wife
about trying to figure something out, whether it's negotiating to
buy a house. The moment your ego and your pride
and stuff gets involved and you can't take the emotion
out of it. So what coward do you say? Take
the emotion out of it? That's how best the best
negotiations happen, especially at the price points in which we're talking.
(14:35):
It's like, can you take the negotiation? That's where I
think the commanders are like, listen, Terry, we love you,
but we're not paying you thirty eight million dollars a year.
There's no fucking chance on God's green Earth that's happening,
because that's a that's a non emotional decision, Like we
were just I don't care, this is that's crazy. It's
not happening. And he's going, well, I deserve more DKA right,
And you're like, well, I mean do you. I mean
(14:56):
we're maybe willing to give you somewhat in that vicinity.
So I just think this cowboy thing is very emotionally driven,
and it's just become an absolute shit show. It's why.
And let's face it, like even Washington's a little weird
with one of their most famous players. I mean obviously
now with Jayden probably their second most important guy that
it's just like, get me out of here. I don't
(15:17):
want to be here. He's holding out, and he's holding in,
and Mike's holding in. These things become hard to overcome.
I saw what the forty nine ers last year is like,
year after year after year, like trade request, hold out,
trade requests. It's like God, it just wears in the
locker room, it wears on the coaching staff, It's like
it's just it's word. These are human beings. Wait, where's
(15:41):
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Speaker 1 (17:26):
Let's use the Steelers as an example. TJ. Watt is
going to go down as one of the better players
in the history of a pretty legendary franchise. It's like, hey, guys,
I need some more money, and we all know it.
It's time we figure something out. And at first it's
just natural negotiations, but you keep it, you keep it private,
and eventually something just gets done. It's like boom, We're
(17:47):
off and running. And I just think this is kind
of the opposite. Listen, Jimmy Haslam gets shpit on right,
gets shipped on constantly, and earned a lot of that
negativity and the animosity that comes from the fame. He's
done some crazy things. Hell, you know where I stand
when it comes to the Shador Sanders draft pick. I
think Jimmy Haslam had his hands all over that thing.
(18:08):
I think that decision was made because of him. But
Miles Garrett, who is one of the more talented players
of his generation in the history of the franchise, is like,
I want to trade. I want to trade. And I
was even thinking, Hey, this team sucks, nuke this thing.
Trade him for a couple of ones, couple twos. You'd
(18:29):
have four or five teams, the Packers, the Lions, I mean,
the Niners, the Rams. Teams have been lined up like
what do we gotta trade? What can we pay him?
And Jimmy has was like, no, one, I don't negotiate this,
even though I signed the checks. But deal with my GM,
but we're not trading yet. And he deals with football
and he's like, yeah, we're not trading you, And what
did they do? What do you need? Break you off
(18:50):
and just settle everything down immediately, and the Cowboys just
never do that. All these other good organizations and I'm
not putting you know, Terry's twenty nine thirty year old
wide receiver. Mike is in the prime of his career
and at the end of the day, like if I
wanted to defend Washington big picture, like I can find
wide receivers find him every year in the draft in
(19:10):
different rounds you get. You know, for every Jamar Chase
that's drafted fifth, there's Justin Jefferson this draft in the twenties,
there's a J Brown, DK Metcalf drafted the end of
the second or middle of the second round. Right, Keenan Allen,
who's had an incredible career. He's a free agent right now,
drafted in the third round. You know, DeVante Adams middle
late second round. It's like that is a there's no
(19:31):
like Miles Garrett's, don't Max Crosby is such an outlier
to find an elite player in the fifth round or
whatever like that. Nick Bosa, Joey Bosa, Like just think
of all the top linemen over the past ten plus years,
Khalil Mack where they are drafted. Micah Parson's looking back
it's one of the crazier stories, like how did he
fall out of the top ten? Well, part of it
(19:53):
was twenty twenty season he sat out like Jamar Chase.
If he had played, does he end up ever if
in coming to the Cowboys? Probably not. If he had
played and that season had been normal, What are we
talking about a guy top five pick, the first non
quarterback off the board. Probably, I mean, I think it's
(20:14):
sometimes it's hard to play that game with hindsight. I
think given those circumstances, the way you know, football was
thrown obviously a world was thrown in a loop. Football
was thrown into a loop, and he fell to them
and they got lucky because of that situation. So now
they find themselves in just a avoidable problem. I think
(20:35):
that's the moral of this story. Avoidable problem. And Jerry
never avoids problems. He just does not avoid problems. And
he has a coach that the conventional dial or thought
and the dialogue around him is going to be God,
this is you got a guy that might be over
his head to begin with, that shouldn't be in this position,
(20:56):
and now you're saddling him with this This would be
These type situations are taxing on Andy Reid's on Mike
tomlins On. I saw with Kyle Shanahan, let alone a
guy that no one has ever thought about him being
a head coach for a decade plus more fifteen years.
He was kind of in the mix in like eighth, nine, ten,
(21:16):
and then ever since then, it's like this guy has
not been discussing. Now this is his problem. The best
player on his team. Definitely on his defense, you got
Eva Flus, who's I guess a good defensive coach. But
good luck, buddy, godspeed to you guys. So just an
absolute shit show. And let's face it that they are
just they're the Bravo reality television show of the NFL.
(21:41):
They're like a summer house. They're like a Southern charm.
They do massive numbers, they draw a massive interest, but
it's just a constant shit show. And the one thing
you know when the season starts, like this team ain't winning.
They might win double edgit games, but bet against him
in the playoffs. And as we saw last year, they're
an injury to away because it kind of built like
a basketball team. They got three or four guys who
(22:02):
are making all the money who have to play at an
elite level, and if one or two of them get injured,
write them off because they are going to suck. And
they already got some issues going on. Got some offensive
linemen that are banged up. They got some offensive linemen
that are just gonna start that they're depending on to
be like high end guys. And if they hit, if
they can find the next Zach Martin, if they can
(22:22):
find the next Tyron Smith, if those guys become Pro
Bowl guys, like, okay, they might have some what if
they don't, you know what if like sometimes the Tyrone
Smith and Zach Martin's like though those are once in
a twenty year span type draft pick, right, you usually
don't just like, hey, back to back Pro Bowl guards,
back to back Pro Bowl tackles, not the way it works.
Oh and then on top of it, you have the
best team in the league, let alone your conference, let
(22:46):
alone your division, just licking their lips to play you
lock in their lip. You're a little lucky that Washington
has this terry situation because they're obviously better than you. Two.
And here's the other thing with some of these young
offensive linemen giants they got there, starting Russell Wilson, so
if they were a stock, I'd short them. But they
do got some defensive lineman and you see I have
(23:08):
deal with Carter working the randos in practice like that
guy is a fucking problem, Like he's a big time player.
They got Brian Burns, they got Dexter Lawrence. So if
you do have some offensive line issues, they will they
will destroy Dak. I mean he will be a sitting duck.
And is this team gonna be some great running the
football operation? Not quite sure. So just another day in
(23:32):
uh in Bravo Land, I mean Dallas for Jerry and
the Cowboys. But thank you Dallas. What what a what
a headline to the book, Michael Parsons wrote on social media.
The volume
The volume. What is going on? Everybody? How are we doing?
It was Friday at about lunch. I just I've been
(00:23):
busy in the morning, so I was headed out to
the gym, and I get a million texts and Instagram
posts forwarded to me and tweets forwarded to me on
the growing story slash trade request that is Micah Parsons.
So I right around noon on Friday, I did a
(00:43):
little reaction video for YouTube and I said, you know what,
let's post this as well on the podcast feed, so
that this was a reaction I did in relation to
Micah Parsons demanding a trade. The Bravo reality show that
is Jerry Jones and the Cowboys, the ego, the pride
(01:05):
and everything that has gotten the way now of this
negotiation which has gotten really ugly. You know. Now, I'll
discussed in this as well, like that this isn't some
of these other sports where you demand a trade and
you know you're not only getting traded, you're gonna tell
where to go. This is the NFL, and that's the
management has a lot of juice and I don't expect
him necessarily to get traded. But Terry McLaurin, I think
(01:28):
The big winners of the day are the last couple
of days with the Eagles, who I don't know if
you've heard, but they're defending Super Bowl champions and they're
in the division with two teams. Who's best players or
you know Terry's price obviously, after Jade and Mike, I'd say,
is their best player him? And CD that one of
them is demanding a trade now, So this is just
(01:50):
this is this is the NFL and this but more specifically,
this is the Cowboys. So let's dive into some of
the details that that Micah Parsons tweeted out, I don't
want to screw this up. Thank you Dallas. The star
pass rusher has officially asked for a trade. Scary Terry
did it yesterday. The Dallas Cowboys star pass rusher, who
(02:14):
has been wanting a contract, obviously says I wanted to
be here. I did everything I could to show that
I wanted to be a Cowboy and wear the star
in my helmet. I wanted to play in front of
the best fans in sports and make this ameris America's
team once again, the team my pops and I grew
up cheering for way up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, I
(02:35):
no longer want to be here. I no longer want
to be held too close to the door negotiations without
my agent. At present, I'm not going to read the
rest because Michael Parsons wrote a book, but Diana Russini
tweeted yesterday that their relationship has been deteriorating. Clearly, I
think the root of this issue. I've been saying this
(02:56):
for a while. I grew up. My dad was a
little bit older when he had me, and by the
time I was like twenty years old. Most of his
friends late sixties, early seventies, a lot of farmers, a
lot of old school businessmen, very stubborn group, especially the
ones who are still having success late, you know, at
that stage of their life. And I think Jerry, a
(03:17):
guy in his eighties who's extremely prideful in these situations
we have seen from Ceedee Lamb to Dak Prescott, these
dragon forever and ultimately he's paid Dak multiple times. He
paid CD a boat load. For whatever reason, he will
not contact David Mulgeta, who at this point in time
(03:38):
is if not the most powerful agent easily one B
or one C right for a long time, it was
Tom Condon, Drew Rosenhaus, Malgeda and Jerry just doesn't want
to deal with them and refuses to call him, and
obviously Molgeta is not contacting him. So the conversations and
the communications, I mean part of being a GM. I
(03:58):
say this all the time when it come to you know, obviously,
any assistant coach who becomes a head coach, and any
assistant GM or scouting director that becomes the GM, it
is so much more than just sitting in a dark
room and watching tape of potential free agents, of dudes
on practice squads and obviously dudes in college. You are
(04:19):
constantly managing up and dealing with agents. So you're dealing
with the owner and dealing with the agents. No matter
how much you like or dislike that part of the job,
it is a massive part of the job. And now
with these guys, you know, some of the star players,
non quarterbacks in the NFL are getting NBA level contracts
(04:40):
like Micah Parsons would get I would guess one hundred
and forty guaranteed and probably a total value worth of
two hundred million dollars. So you're looking at a player
that if they do not get injured and he plays
at a high level, is gonna see every opinion. I
say this all the time about these quarterbacks. We spend
a lot of time. I mean, I'm guilty of this too,
(05:01):
hammering on the guaranteed money, like how much guaranteed money
Dak got or how much money Ceedee Lamb got. Last
time I checked, Dak's made every penny of every contract,
non guaranteed and guaranteed. If Ceedee Lamb doesn't have a
catastrophic injury, he's gonna see every penny of that contract.
Most of the star players in the NFL are just
going chi ching, chi ching, chi ching all the way
(05:22):
to the bank, non guaranteed, in pro and guaranteed. When
you start falling off a cliff like Russell Wilson, they
throw you to the Wolves rightfully. So I don't want
you on this team. You suck. But most of these players,
all throughout the league, you go through every good team
or every star player, they are seeing every penny of
that contract. But you are talking an enormous amount of money.
(05:44):
I saw this on I think Twitter the other day.
Is this thing went viral of Jerry Jones negotiating with
Dion Sanders back when he signed him in whatever ninety
would have been, probably the spring of ninety five, because
the forty nine Ers won the Super Bowl with the
Sanders in ninety four. They won the Super Bowl like
February of ninety five, so Jerry would have signed him
(06:06):
a couple months later, a month later, and he went
behind Steven who was running the Cap at the time,
I mean the Cap was like two years old, and
just did the deal with Dion and gave Dion I
think thirteen million dollars a signing bonus slash, guaranteed money
up front and basically hit his account and then paid
(06:26):
him the minimum for the next couple of years. And
Stephen Jones is like, what the hell he did? And
Jerry used to be this crazy deal maker doing stuff
like that, this kind of maverick, just doing whatever it took.
Now he's become in a weird way. One anytime you
become old and you are as wealthy as Jerry is,
it is easy to be stubborn. Most guys in their
(06:48):
eighties who have unlimited cash and have a lot of
power and a lot of juice aren't super like open
minded and willing to do things that back in the
day they maybe didn't have to do. And even Dion
was quoted on this video that I saw was like,
this video happened only because me and Jerry worked out
the deal. It was just me and Jerry, you know.
And I think Jerry this old school businessman from the seventies,
(07:11):
the eighties and the nineties, these agents didn't play as
big of a role. Well, times have changed and these
guys are integral parts of these negotiations. And a guy
like Micah Parsons is just very valuable, right, And you're
looking at just an enormous contract. You're seeing TJ. Watt
and Max Crosby get third contracts as pass rushers and
(07:32):
get one hundred plus guaranteed. So a couple of years
ago Nick Bosa got one hundred and twenty five, you're talking,
I mean potentially Michael one hundred and fifty or manufactor
in inflation, the natural growth of the salary cap, the
natural growth of the media. Deals like these are it's
basically a quarterback contract. But Jerry in their front office
has to know this so to get it and make
(07:53):
it this weird. It's like it is it is avoidable.
It really is avoidable. Sometimes you're at an impass negotiations. Right,
they want ten million more than you're willing to pay,
and you just work through it. Right, Money's all relative,
So it could be a five million dollar contract or
it could be a two hundred million dollar contract, and
you work through it. And most of these contracts in
(08:13):
the NFL eventually work themselves out. Some become a little
more contentious than others. But for if I want to
keep you and like Micah wants to be there, we
can figure this out. But when you get in these situations,
clearly it's like there's a lot of ego involved, there's
a lot of personality involved. This becomes less about the
actual money in the actual play on the field and
(08:35):
becomes this circus. And that's what the Dallas Cowboys have
become a circus. So that video of Jerry back in
the mid nineties when he was in his prime as
a businessman, when the Cowboys were in their prime as
a roster and everything was running. I grew up in
northern California and the Niners were a fucking dynasty and
they were the one team that could beat them, and
beat them a lot. And in Jerry obviously his ego
(08:56):
got fired, Jimmy like he had to be a big
part of it. And let's face past ninety six, like
they've had some good regular season teams, but they haven't
done shit. Haven't been to a conference championship. I think
all insane. That is how many teams in the league
over the last ten years haven't been to a conference championship.
Think about the natural turn. The Jags were there not
(09:16):
that long ago, and I think when you look at
this cowboy situation, it all stems back to Jerry right,
because they've proven that they actually can pick pretty good players,
they can build a pretty good team. I mean a
couple of years ago, they had a team that I
thought was worthy of competing for Super Bowl. Now, dak
shited the bed in the second round against the forty
(09:37):
nine ers, but their defense was elite. Dan Quinn had
the defense humming, their offense was pretty damn good and
dak shpited the bed and they lost the forty nine
Ers on the road in a game that was winnable.
And other than that, and even the year before when
they lost the Niners at home, like they had a
really good team. And now you're looking at a team
whose roster's not quite the same, who's very dependent on
some young offensive linemen. I still don't know about their
(09:59):
running backs, but the best player on their team one
of them. See, he's pretty elite to you. Just you
get in these situations and you have a first year
head coach in Brian Schottenheimer that I think it's easy
to shit on the guy. But like the reality and
the facts are, no other team was hiring Brian Schottenheimer
to be their quarterback or be their head coach. Nobody,
(10:21):
you could argue, no one in the league was hiring
him to be their offensive coordinator. And that's who Jerry
made the head coach. I mean sometimes I see Jason
Garrett on television and I go, I don't know who's
hiring this guy, some fucking suit at NBC. Like this
guy doesn't resonate with any of us, Like he's just
he's not very good on television. He's just bad. He
(10:42):
obviously wasn't blow average head coach. I mean, the guy
is it's crazy that he had a job as long
as he did, But he was obviously kind of a
made man in the Dallas Cowboy mop because he's awful
on TV. He was a guy that any Cowboy fan
wanted fired about. You're two into the thing. But somehow
everywhere we look, always Jason Garrett around and that is
the power of the Cowboys. Like people always get very angry.
(11:04):
He's like, why is everyone talking about the Cowboys? Why
is everyone talking about the Cowboys? Because for as crazy
as they haven't won in a long time, they are
a massive brand that does huge numbers. That's not debatable.
It's like, why are the TV shows always talking about Well,
they got these things called metrics, and they can tell
when you're watching and when you're not watching, like they
kind of know what's going on. They would talk about
the Jags if they did the same numbers, but they don't,
(11:26):
so they don't talk about them. It's just a numbers game.
And I think that the Cowboys and Jerry's very egotistical
about that notion of I got the biggest brand, I
got the biggest team. My team generates the most money,
but they never fucking win. And he's a big reason
why you hire average coaches. You always get in these
weird dispute over these players. You never do these contracts right. Meanwhile,
(11:47):
you got the best GM and one of the best
run organizations in your division, who operates the complete opposite
way they I mean, Howie and the Eagles have to
be today or really the last twenty four hours. They
got scary Terry who's demanding to trade and doesn't look
like Washington's gonna pay him. And you got Micah demanding
a trade and who knows how this is gonna play out. Now,
(12:08):
let me say this, I've been talking here for a while.
The NFL is not the NBA. Just because you demand
a trade doesn't mean anyone actually gives a shit and
you actually get traded. We see guys demand trades all
the time and they go nowhere. So I'm not acting
like Micah Parson is going to get traded or Terry
McLaurin is going to get traded. If I was a
betting man, I would bet neither guy gets traded. That's
(12:28):
not the way this league works. This isn't you know,
Kevin Durant or some of these guys. They are like
trade me, and they're like, oh, where do you want
to go? That's not the way this sport works, which
actually becomes more pro fan that way, because you're not
worried like if this was the other sports, baseball or basketball,
you'd be like, he's gone, and that's I do not
expect Michael Parson to be traded, but this is a circus.
(12:49):
And you know Adam Peters, who I've known for a while,
Like I I understood why he made these trades in
the offseason. But I've said before, I do think trading
for Debo. He's making the same money as Terry and Tarry.
He just goes, I just thirteen touchdowns last year. One
I'm underpaid, but two I'm not making the same as
this guy when I've been in this organization. So these
locker room dynamics are a huge part of being the GM.
(13:11):
It's why this offseason, what did Howie Roseman do? Did
he have to pay Saquon? Of course not, but why
did he do it? Because everyone looks around and go,
who's the best player on this team? It's not our quarterback.
Who's the highest paid player on this team? It's our
running back. And we have a team full of stars,
AJ Brown, Blaine Johnson, Like I mean star players, Jalen
(13:31):
Carter who's not eligible to get paid, but like, we
got to take care of this guy because money does
kind of demand respect. Right when you're an elite player,
how much you make, it's all public. This isn't like
most of our jobs, Like, I don't really know how
much this guy makes. This isn't public information. And I
think you look at this situation, it's just always Jerry like. Ultimately,
(13:53):
I think Washington is much more stable now. They will
get this figured out in some form or fashion be like, yeah,
we just don't care, you know. It's like, what are
you gonna do? Now? Call David mulgeta, I apologize. Can
we figure something out? This is anyone who's been part
of negotiations, whether it's negotiating a salary, whether it's negotiations
(14:14):
with a loved one you know, a girlfriend, a wife
about trying to figure something out, whether it's negotiating to
buy a house. The moment your ego and your pride
and stuff gets involved and you can't take the emotion
out of it. So what coward do you say? Take
the emotion out of it? That's how best the best
negotiations happen, especially at the price points in which we're talking.
(14:35):
It's like, can you take the negotiation? That's where I
think the commanders are like, listen, Terry, we love you,
but we're not paying you thirty eight million dollars a year.
There's no fucking chance on God's green Earth that's happening,
because that's a that's a non emotional decision, Like we
were just I don't care, this is that's crazy. It's
not happening. And he's going, well, I deserve more DKA right,
And you're like, well, I mean do you. I mean
(14:56):
we're maybe willing to give you somewhat in that vicinity.
So I just think this cowboy thing is very emotionally driven,
and it's just become an absolute shit show. It's why.
And let's face it, like even Washington's a little weird
with one of their most famous players. I mean obviously
now with Jayden probably their second most important guy that
it's just like, get me out of here. I don't
(15:17):
want to be here. He's holding out, and he's holding in,
and Mike's holding in. These things become hard to overcome.
I saw what the forty nine ers last year is like,
year after year after year, like trade request, hold out,
trade requests. It's like God, it just wears in the
locker room, it wears on the coaching staff, It's like
it's just it's word. These are human beings. Wait, where's
(15:41):
on the fans? It's like, God, this is so exhausting?
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Speaker 1 (17:26):
Let's use the Steelers as an example. TJ. Watt is
going to go down as one of the better players
in the history of a pretty legendary franchise. It's like, hey, guys,
I need some more money, and we all know it.
It's time we figure something out. And at first it's
just natural negotiations, but you keep it, you keep it private,
and eventually something just gets done. It's like boom, We're
(17:47):
off and running. And I just think this is kind
of the opposite. Listen, Jimmy Haslam gets shpit on right,
gets shipped on constantly, and earned a lot of that
negativity and the animosity that comes from the fame. He's
done some crazy things. Hell, you know where I stand
when it comes to the Shador Sanders draft pick. I
think Jimmy Haslam had his hands all over that thing.
(18:08):
I think that decision was made because of him. But
Miles Garrett, who is one of the more talented players
of his generation in the history of the franchise, is like,
I want to trade. I want to trade. And I
was even thinking, Hey, this team sucks, nuke this thing.
Trade him for a couple of ones, couple twos. You'd
(18:29):
have four or five teams, the Packers, the Lions, I mean,
the Niners, the Rams. Teams have been lined up like
what do we gotta trade? What can we pay him?
And Jimmy has was like, no, one, I don't negotiate this,
even though I signed the checks. But deal with my GM,
but we're not trading yet. And he deals with football
and he's like, yeah, we're not trading you, And what
did they do? What do you need? Break you off
(18:50):
and just settle everything down immediately, and the Cowboys just
never do that. All these other good organizations and I'm
not putting you know, Terry's twenty nine thirty year old
wide receiver. Mike is in the prime of his career
and at the end of the day, like if I
wanted to defend Washington big picture, like I can find
wide receivers find him every year in the draft in
(19:10):
different rounds you get. You know, for every Jamar Chase
that's drafted fifth, there's Justin Jefferson this draft in the twenties,
there's a J Brown, DK Metcalf drafted the end of
the second or middle of the second round. Right, Keenan Allen,
who's had an incredible career. He's a free agent right now,
drafted in the third round. You know, DeVante Adams middle
late second round. It's like that is a there's no
(19:31):
like Miles Garrett's, don't Max Crosby is such an outlier
to find an elite player in the fifth round or
whatever like that. Nick Bosa, Joey Bosa, Like just think
of all the top linemen over the past ten plus years,
Khalil Mack where they are drafted. Micah Parson's looking back
it's one of the crazier stories, like how did he
fall out of the top ten? Well, part of it
(19:53):
was twenty twenty season he sat out like Jamar Chase.
If he had played, does he end up ever if
in coming to the Cowboys? Probably not. If he had
played and that season had been normal, What are we
talking about a guy top five pick, the first non
quarterback off the board. Probably, I mean, I think it's
(20:14):
sometimes it's hard to play that game with hindsight. I
think given those circumstances, the way you know, football was
thrown obviously a world was thrown in a loop. Football
was thrown into a loop, and he fell to them
and they got lucky because of that situation. So now
they find themselves in just a avoidable problem. I think
(20:35):
that's the moral of this story. Avoidable problem. And Jerry
never avoids problems. He just does not avoid problems. And
he has a coach that the conventional dial or thought
and the dialogue around him is going to be God,
this is you got a guy that might be over
his head to begin with, that shouldn't be in this position,
(20:56):
and now you're saddling him with this This would be
These type situations are taxing on Andy Reid's on Mike
tomlins On. I saw with Kyle Shanahan, let alone a
guy that no one has ever thought about him being
a head coach for a decade plus more fifteen years.
He was kind of in the mix in like eighth, nine, ten,
(21:16):
and then ever since then, it's like this guy has
not been discussing. Now this is his problem. The best
player on his team. Definitely on his defense, you got
Eva Flus, who's I guess a good defensive coach. But
good luck, buddy, godspeed to you guys. So just an
absolute shit show. And let's face it that they are
just they're the Bravo reality television show of the NFL.
(21:41):
They're like a summer house. They're like a Southern charm.
They do massive numbers, they draw a massive interest, but
it's just a constant shit show. And the one thing
you know when the season starts, like this team ain't winning.
They might win double edgit games, but bet against him
in the playoffs. And as we saw last year, they're
an injury to away because it kind of built like
a basketball team. They got three or four guys who
(22:02):
are making all the money who have to play at an
elite level, and if one or two of them get injured,
write them off because they are going to suck. And
they already got some issues going on. Got some offensive
linemen that are banged up. They got some offensive linemen
that are just gonna start that they're depending on to
be like high end guys. And if they hit, if
they can find the next Zach Martin, if they can
(22:22):
find the next Tyron Smith, if those guys become Pro
Bowl guys, like, okay, they might have some what if
they don't, you know what if like sometimes the Tyrone
Smith and Zach Martin's like though those are once in
a twenty year span type draft pick, right, you usually
don't just like, hey, back to back Pro Bowl guards,
back to back Pro Bowl tackles, not the way it works.
Oh and then on top of it, you have the
best team in the league, let alone your conference, let
(22:46):
alone your division, just licking their lips to play you
lock in their lip. You're a little lucky that Washington
has this terry situation because they're obviously better than you. Two.
And here's the other thing with some of these young
offensive linemen giants they got there, starting Russell Wilson, so
if they were a stock, I'd short them. But they
do got some defensive lineman and you see I have
(23:08):
deal with Carter working the randos in practice like that
guy is a fucking problem, Like he's a big time player.
They got Brian Burns, they got Dexter Lawrence. So if
you do have some offensive line issues, they will they
will destroy Dak. I mean he will be a sitting duck.
And is this team gonna be some great running the
football operation? Not quite sure. So just another day in
(23:32):
uh in Bravo Land, I mean Dallas for Jerry and
the Cowboys. But thank you Dallas. What what a what
a headline to the book, Michael Parsons wrote on social media.
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