Blogging The Boys
It was almost exactly seven months ago that the Dallas Mavericks became the laughing stock of pro sports with their shocking midnight trade of Luka Dončić to the Lakers. General manager Nico Harrison immediately became the most well-known executive in basketball, and in the worst way possible.
While that ordeal was the worst case scenario for Mavericks fans, it had to offer a bit of a reprieve for Jerry Jones. After the Cowboys missed the playoffs and Jones was effectively left at the altar by Mike McCarthy, whom Jones had foolishly forced to coach into the final year of his contract, fan unrest was at an all-time high. The promotion of Brian Schottenheimer did nothing to change that.
Just over a week after Schottenheimer’s promotion, Harrison and the Mavericks ripped the negative spotlight away from Jones. It bought enough time for Schottenheimer to win some fans over with his charisma and encouraging coaching staff. That was coupled with the Netflix documentary, America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys, which largely explores and relives the glory days of the 90’s. For a brief moment, it felt good to be a fan of this team again.
So much for that.
Jones shocked the world on Thursday afternoon when the Cowboys agreed to trade Micah Parsons to the Packers. Dallas gets a decent haul – two first-round picks and three-time Pro Bowler Kenny Clark – but it’s unlikely to ever match the type of impact that Parsons had in his four years with the team.
The move marked a sudden, shocking, and ultimately miserable end to a completely avoidable feud with the team’s best player.
Parsons, of course, is a defensive demon. Arguably the best defensive player in the league, Parsons has posted at least 12 sacks in all four years and routinely been at or near the top of the league in pressures despite consistently being the most double-teamed defender in the NFL.
He was also a Swiss army knife, capable of lining up practically anywhere on the field and wreaking havoc. Mike Zimmer even built his defense this past season around giving Parsons the freedom to line up wherever he wants and go from there. That’s the kind of player Parsons is.
That kind of player is one you pay whatever dollar amount it takes to keep him. Ideally, he’s also the type of player you pay said amount to as soon as humanly possible. Jerry Jones did not seem to care, though.
He and son Stephen Jones – who proudly proclaimed at the start of training camp to be the one at the driver’s seat for contract negotiations – dragged their feet on extensions for both Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, which put the team behind the eight ball on Parsons too.
Then came the most confounding element of this saga. Jones, who has been negotiating deals with players’ agents for decades, decided that he was going to cut Parsons’ agent out of the process entirely. That agent, of course,...
