Jerry Jones: Put the Best Team on the Field | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Jerry Jones: Put the Best Team on the Field | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Jerry, are you considering trading Michael Parsons? Well, let’s put it like this. U surely you guys have been around this stuff and know to recognize u negotiation talk, that type of thing. And uh so uh that’s where I put that. So are you considering it? I’m not at this uh the facts are that uh that’s like anything else. Uh uh uh I think uh the world of Micah uh and u that’s just a part of negotiation. Would you ever consider trading again? Uh I don’t u uh really place that uh with any uh real seriousness. You know, Micah has got a bad back. That’s like being traded. Did the request take you by surprise? Your weighed the same. Did the request take you by surprise? Again, uh that’s negotiation. I’ve heard that so many times in my 30 years in the NFL about u from not just players, but agents and of course u uh we all understand contracts. We’re under contract. Uh that’s what we’re doing. We’re uh looking at adjusting the contract, but we’re under contract and uh we’re in camp and uh that’s the way the uh the rules are set up. But uh uh that is uh old stuff. 30 years of old stuff. This uh some of these issues we’re hearing about trading, hurt backs, all that kind of stuff. When do you start when do you start negotiations with his people, Jerry? again. Uh I’ve been negoti I started negotiations in March when but what was with his agent? I said I started negotiation in March and I’ve negotiated double handfuls of contracts just like I did in March. He he thought it was again again again. Are you asking me? Yeah. I started that in March. I placed with him in negotiation question. The meeting was about leadership not about his contract. It’s my answer. It’s my answer. I was negotiating in March. Are you surprised it’s gotten to this point? Not really. Not really at all. That’s This is just negotiation. Is there really him at all? Have you talked to him at all? Again. Again, I sat with him at the Big 12 Conference Championship. Sat with him at Super Bowl. So, uh, uh, Mike’s, uh, uh, easy for me to talk to, and we’ve had good talks, and, uh, uh, we, uh, uh, had a good talk regarding negotiation of the contract the way I have many, many, many players. And I don’t need to remind you, we’ve had some great players around here that wanted to renegotiate their contract. We didn’t, put it off to another year. And so u uh that’s where I am on it. But it’s uh any of the stuff that uh you hear in the process of a negotiation, you can imagine I should uh take that for whatever. Do you expect him to be on the field week one? Again, I don’t want to uh talk about my expectations. Now, that is speculating or uh but I can speak to uh anything that’s happened up until now and uh that has no sensitivity to that. Is it is it good to see him is still at practice though? Even though he made that demand, but he’s still out here. Well, I wish the back would get better. You wish the back would get better. So, so the back is not again. Again, I just said I wish the back would get better so we could not have a hurt back. You talk about You talk about 30 years of these types of scenarios. Is there really nothing different about this one from the others? Well, it’s just that you’ve seen it uh uh so uh so often and uh you’ve seen it with other clubs. You uh you go through the process. It’s a highly sensitive time uh when you’re uh guaranteeing somebody almost $200 million. That’s sensitive stuff. When when the season ended, uh we talked to you about Mike McCarthy and him potentially talking to other teams and you said you wanted uh you don’t want anybody that doesn’t want to be here. Micah Parson says he doesn’t want to be here. How is that any different? No. No different than a bad back. Did you decline to negotiate with him last year? What? Did you decline to negotiate with him last year like he said? With who? With Micah last year. With who? Micah. Yeah. Did you He said you guys he wanted to negotiate last year and you guys I know you misheard me. I didn’t I don’t think we got any negotiations last year. Closest thing to last year was March of this year when we had a good negotiation. He said he wanted to talk before last season. Do you recall anything about that? Well, again, u I it could very well be. It’s what he wants and so that could cover a lot of ground. When he put out the note yesterday saying he’d asked for a trade, did that make you angry? Not a bit. Not Not a bit. I I can’t tell you how many hundreds of times I’ve heard that negotiation. Jerry, what do you what do you think of all the fans chatting his name and kind of supporting him and uh you know hearing them all screaming out there? It was just so much louder last year walking off this field with Lamb. Have you talked to Micah in the last 24 hours? No. Do you plan on getting with him at our Again, I don’t I don’t get get into what my plans are at all. Do you think this relationship is salvageable? Uh I think the relationship is uh what it is when you when what it is period of what it is. Well, it’s a it’s our relationship. I sat with him at the uh at the U Big Eight Big 12 Championship. I sat with him at the Super Bowl. Uh I I uh I like Michael. So for you, nothing’s changed. Many times in the past we’ve gone through these negotiations, but when you had everything, it always usually ends with the player you want in the contract and and a good number. I’m glad you brought that up. I’m really glad you brought that up. It seems like that we forget that it’s been less than a year and I paid the highest been paid in the NFL to die and I paid a big price for lamp and uh anybody that says I’m not uh interested in uh uh financially rewarding my players uh is uh hadn’t been looking at the tea leaves and uh so there’s uh always always negotiation and the negotiation is to put the best team on the field and um we uh it’s uh many times it’s not even a question of deserving and in today’s salary cap you’ve got to have either or you can’t have it all. So all those things go into cons go into the u so to speak the equation and uh uh the art of the deal is to get the best players out there for the resources that you have under the cap. And so uh that’s what we’re doing. That’s that’s what this is all about. I’m I’m I’m here. I do what I do. I love these guys. Uh frankly, I could be any place in the world and I want to be right here. I want to be right here with camp. I enjoy these players. I enjoy Micah. Uh but uh uh uh as always in any relationships or different moods at different times of your relationship, that’s what it is. Don’t lose any sleep over. So just to be clear, that’s the one thing I would say to our fans. Don’t lose any sleepover. Just to be clear, you don’t feel the relationship has changed at all from the Super Bowl Big 12? Again, I know my attitude and my attitude is the same one I’ve had. I think the world of Micah, he’s an outstanding player. Uh he can really help us. Uh but he’s got to fit in with uh uh what’s in the best interest of the team, and that’s what the negotiation’s all about. When you see frustration from players like CD Lamb on social media, even though he was, to your point, going through this exact thing a year ago, there’s players on the defensive side of the ball that are changing their Twitter profile pictures to pictures of Micah in solidarity with him. Are you concerned with the way that you are viewed in the locker room by these players that seem to be frustrated with the way that this is going? Not in the least. Have you been in our locker room? Well, you surely you have. You’ve been in there. Have you been out to Have you been out to uh to the Star and been out there? Uh I’m I don’t take a backseat to anybody on how I treat players. Is this all fun for you any place? Is this fun for you? What? This whole ordeal? Well, I’ve chosen to do this all uh for my life and uh uh this is uh uh this important to me and uh uh to spend the time that I spend doing it and all of that is is important, but it’s important to me to get the job done uh in a way that fits what we need to do as a team. And so, uh, uh, if you had, uh, if everybody had the ability to take an existing contract and just say, I I disregard it, this league would be chaos. And so, at some point, you do have to recognize that we’re talking about under contract here, which can diminish. If somebody makes a new contract, it makes you wonder if they’ll honor that contract, Jerry. Because they’re both the same paper with the same signatures on them. So, you have to work through the integrity of the agreement. And we’re under contract here. Can can we and uh we’ve got future I wouldn’t be standing here with you if I didn’t think we had a potentially had a great future with Micah. Be a waste of all of our time. So, uh we’re good shape. This is uh uh this is negotiation. Uh and uh uh uh but make no mistake about it, life has to go on. Uh if uh something happens to me or anybody else, life does go on. This thing called the NFL, uh it’s not about one person. You keep bringing up me included in a big way. You you you keep bringing up we have a contract which to me is kind of disingenuous because City had a contract, OSA had a contract and you still gave them new deals or gave them extensions while they were under contract. Dak had a contract, Lawrence had a contract and we didn’t do the new deal with the contract. Right. Right. That’s what I’m saying. We both but uh pretty recently Dak and what I’m trying to say is we’ve done it both ways. Uh the the decision the very definition of coming to an agreement in what’s perceived to be your best interest is negotiating over an existing contract where you have the deal in your hands and both of you have to agree to make an adjustment in that contract going forward. That’s the height of needing to get your minds together. when you don’t have it, when you don’t have a meeting of the minds, you go ahead like Dag did or you go ahead like uh uh Lawrence did and you play out the contract. Is is the offer you had in March still on the table? What? The deal the offer you had in March, the meeting of the minds, is that still on the table? Micah took it off. He took it off. So, it’s not on the table. He took it off. No, he took it off. I’m just saying he took it off. Okay. I’m not Don’t put an answer there, please. Okay. He took it off. Okay. And because of that, that’s why it’s very important. Okay. And because of that, that’s why you’re like, I don’t want to negotiate with these people right now. Well, uh I know that um uh uh I know I’ve grew up uh when mama wouldn’t let me do something going to daddy and daddy let me do it and going back in saying to mama, daddy said I could do it. I’ve that old mama daddy stuff. We got here doing that by nature. So I’m we’re not going to do that. Y’all get the analogy, do you? Yeah. Okay, we agree, but let me see if I can get my agent in on it. So, my point is that’s that mom and daddy deal that’s been going on since we all got here. Are you So, the key is for you and Micah to have an agreement. Well, no. The key is that we’ve got an agreement. Let’s really do understand that. We’ve got an agreement. Now, if we’re going to adjust that agreement, then u he’s a must and I’m a must. Okay? Not the organization. I’m a must in this case. And so I do these uh these very significant ones. And so uh it’s very important that if we’re going to change the contract that we’ve got right now, which this would, then that I uh agree to what we’ve changed. Uh that’s why it was so good when we sat down together and spent a lot of time going back and forth and adjusting and and uh we had that exercise together. If you’re a must, then why would you not talk to the agent since you’re a must in the conversation? Why would you yourself not talk to the agent? Because the agent uh when we have a problem with in the team and a player, I don’t ever find the agent. He’s nowhere to be found. Okay. Uh Jay-Z said that Michael would make all I’m not Michael, but that Dez would make all meetings. He Jay-Z and I negotiated the contract. We spent hours negotiating the contract. Jay-Z and he said, “Anybody in my organization is on time.” said, “My office used to be on the street corner and I’ve always been early, so they will be on time.” I said, “Where did I sign? But I’m going to call you.” Finally, he quit taking my call. Well, Dez and M have different different histories in far as again. Again, please I’m just talking about the agent. Yeah. Don’t don’t take that to Micah and Dez. just simply say that when the issues come up, the first one and the one that is there is us and the player. My experience hadn’t been the agent is not the one that solves the problems you have when you’re executing what you said you would do in the contract. So, I like to deal directly with the player uh when I uh when it’s uh uh of this nature. So, in March, did he say we have a deal? Again, I’m not going to get into the details of it. I’m not getting into the details. I think I was asked a question, have we negotiated? Have we negotiated directly? And that is an emphatic yes, we have. All right, we got to go positive for the organization. You’ve done this obviously several years now going back to Dez, Zeke, obviously Dak and CD a year ago, now Micah. Do you see this protracted process over the course of training camp as a net positive for the organization? Well, I I I can be cute and I’m going to be uh it lasted into the third game with them and we won the Super Bowl. So, it can be. But again, that’s to call a negotiation parts of it positive, parts of it negative. Uh they’re positive if we uh can come to an agreement that fits comes to an agreement that fits what we’ve paid other players, what we’re going to pay other players. All of things come to an agree a agreement. What y’all don’t know is is what I offered him. And it’s a hell of a lot more than you think I did. That’s what you don’t know. What was that? Again, her number is xxx. Of course not. I’m just trying to say to you uh we’re all walking blank. We don’t know what that number and terms were. Uh but uh uh uh and that’s not appropriate right now to get into it. But my point is uh it uh I reached. Make no mistake about it. I reached. So uh that’s uh that’s uh again let’s go back to this. This is a a negotiation. Does it blow me up to uh uh somebody to say look uh uh trade me? That’s uh uh that’s just not a a flare of sign for me at all in any way. Thank you. All right. Thanks, guys.

Owner, President & General Manager Jerry Jones met with the media following Saturday’s training camp practice to discuss negotiations with Micah Parsons, the goal of building the best team for the season and more.

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