David Mulugheta shares ALL THE DETAILS of the Micah Parsons-Dallas Cowboys negotiations | First Take

David Mulugheta shares ALL THE DETAILS of the Micah Parsons-Dallas Cowboys negotiations | First Take

Good morning. Welcome back to First Take. From feeling blue to seeing green. After requesting a trade from Dallas on August 1st, Micah Parsons made his practice debut with the Green Bay Packers Monday. It was a tumultuous ending in Dallas with lots of talking both from the media and owner Jerry Jones. But in the end, Parsons was traded and agreed to a 4-year, $188 million contract with the Packers with 136 million in total guarantees, making him the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history. A great deal by Micah’s agent, David Mulligetta. Let’s hear what Jerry had to say about David’s role when Stephen A sat down with him just a few weeks ago. There’s right now about three entities involved in the Micah Parson deal that really count. And that’s not to dismiss everything about the organization and the Cowboys. What are the three entities? Micah, me sitting out there and about a mile back is that agent. These are the two to get it done. Always has. And these are the two that be sitting there working it out when it hits the fan when it’s not between the lines on that contract. That’s why I’m going to do it. We now welcome in the man himself, Forb’s number one most powerful NFL agent of 2025, David Mulligetta. David, thank you so much for being with us this morning. We so appreciate it. I want to dive right in. Can you walk us through your timeline on how things unfolded with the Cowboys and Jerry Jones? Uh, first off, I appreciate you guys having me and uh Stephen, I appreciate you learning how to say my last name after after three years. Yes. Yes. Yes. But uh no, as far as the contract, you know, for us this kind of moved at at a normal pace initially, uh you know, we we were open to doing a deal as we stated with the Cowboys after his third season. And at the time, the Cowboys had other deals to do. You know, that Dak Prescott was coming up, their their quarterback, their leader, as well as CD. So, we knew that we would have to wait our turn. So, after his third season, after his fourth season, we asked again uh if they were ready to to start negotiating a deal. And at that time, they told us they would let us know when they were. And for some reason that that never happened with me. David, thank you for being on the show, which by the way, props to you because Lord, you’re hard to get. I had to ask you for months for crying out loud. It took it took me months to get you on the show cuz this is not something that obviously you’re you’re you’re prone to do. So, I really really appreciate you coming on the show. Jerry says that essentially when he made a contract offer, he brought up some stick it up your ass comment that that that came out of your mouth of the mouth of the representation for Mike Parsons. I want you to address that and whether or not there’s any truth to what he articulated to myself, to Michael Michael Irvin and others in regards to that. Yeah, you know, I it might be hard for some to believe, but I don’t think I’ve ever used that phrase in my life. And in my 40 plus years, I definitely wouldn’t use it uh with somebody that I have to work with or somebody that I plan on working with in the future. So, no, that that wasn’t true. And it was a misrepresentation of what I said. What I did tell them was if they believe that the contract was already finalized and they were sending it over to me to be rubber stamped, uh then, you know, they probably shouldn’t send it over. David, what are we missing here? Jerry Jones is of the mindset that there was a negotiation that took place between him and Micah Parsons and then he gets a call from Micah Parsons and Micah Parsons says ultimately calls him back and says, “Don’t call me anymore. Call my agent.” After an agreement was reached, you guys appear to be diametrically opposed in terms of your interpretation of what transpired. Break down for the audience exactly what transpired. What was Michael Michael Parsons talking to Jerry Jones about? What actually happened that had Jerry Jones get to a point where he believed the negotiation was completed before somebody like yourself got in the way, per se? Definitely. You know, as far as far as Mike is concerned, he was, you know, he was out of the country. He got a call from Jerry’s assistant and was asked to come in to meet about leadership. So, when he got back from his vacation, he came in and he gave him a call, told me he was back. was ready to meet. Uh at some point during that meeting that was uh represented to him about was going to be about leadership, it turned into contract talk and uh you know if you’re a 25 year old football player and your boss who happens to be the most powerful person in the NFL starts talking about contracts, it’s hard for you to end that conversation. So they had a conversation. Micah nodded his head out of respect. Obviously there’s a power dynamic that’s a little different there. One guy is the owner of the team and the GM and the other one is Michael Parsons, a young 25-year-old football player. So, I’m not sure if there was a miscommunication there by the time Micah walked out, but at no point did Micah believe that he was negotiating a contract. So, with that being said, what was the issue or what has been the issue or has there ever been an issue between you and Jerry Jones where it would seem very, very simple, you’re one of the most influential agents in the world, clearly the most powerful in the NFL in the eyes of many. It makes no sense to a lot of us why Jerry Jones would refrain from wanting to talk to you to a point where he’s almost willing to lose or actually literally willing to lose Micah Parsons rather than sit down and have a negotiation with you. What is that about? I think that was the part for us that was the most uh confusing, right? I understand Jerry’s always going to do what’s best for the Cowboys and we get that, right? His job is to do what’s best for the team and put them in the best situation to win. Uh, in this situation, once Micah asked for his representation to be involved, we assumed that that would go like any other negotiation and they would reach out or they would allow me to reach out and commence negotiations. But I I can’t answer that question. I’m not sure how this turned the way it did. We were open to negotiate. We reached out numerous times to uh Adam Parisa there who does their contracts. I reached out to Stephen Jones as well and ask him, you know, to start negotiations. But for some reason coming out of that conversation, Jerry believed that he had reached an agreement and he was not open to negotiating any further. I mean, I’m thinking about you are an elite agent. You represent a bevy of clients in the National Football League. It’s it seems clearly understandable to the point where the NFL PA, the NFL itself should be involved if somebody is refusing to talk with a player’s represent representation. What do you say about the state of affairs that exists as it pertains to that issue? An unwillingness to talk to an agent. What does that mean to you? How do you absorb that? I honestly don’t take it personal. Like I said, I think Jerry’s job and it has always been to do what’s best for the Cowboys, right? This is this never turned personal for myself or for Micah, right? This is another negotiation. You know, we didn’t understand why they wouldn’t talk to his agent since I would say probably 99% of the contracts that are done across the NFL are done with player representation. uh this day and age, contracts have gotten to a point where they’re so, you know, convoluted. Uh there’s a lot that goes into them from guaranteed structure to APY to signing bonuses to cash flow. So to expect somebody like Michael Parsons to be one of the best defenders in the NFL and also a great lawyer when it comes to contracts, you know, I think it’s a bit unfair. You know, his job is to go out there and chase quarterbacks and our job is to go out there and chase commas for him. So, uh, I’m, you know, again, I’m not sure exactly why it went this way, but, you know, we we were always prepared and open to negotiate a contract with the Jones family. Are you an advocate of the NFL PA getting involved to a point where they they’re probing into this situation in terms of a refusal by an owner or by an executive or in Jerry’s case, he says the GM of the Dallas Cowboys refusing to really really talk with you and negotiate a deal. Do you expect, anticipate, or even hope that the NFL PA will get involved in probing this issue? My expectation is that the NFL PA, you know, that’s what they’re there for, right? To protect player rights. So, I would assume that they’d want to look into this, but, you know, as far as how they do that, how they operate, you know, it’s a little above my head. What about your concern? Because you represent George Pickkins is one of the uh clients that you rep one of your clients. He’s on the Dallas Cowboys right now. He’s approaching a contract year. You had an issue uh as it pertained to Michael Parsons in terms of your communication uh with the boss of the Dallas Cowboys. What are you anticipating when it comes to George Pickings? Yeah, my partner Trayvon Smith and I represent George and again, we’ve talked about that over and over again. We again, we there’s nothing personal here, right? It’s is it’s a business transaction as far as a contract’s concerned. So, if George Pickkins does what we expect him to do, which is be one of the best receivers in the NFL this year, we’ll have those conversations with the Cowboys. And if they’re open to having that dialogue with us and negotiating a long-term deal, then, you know, we’d love for George Pickkins to be a star with a star in his helmet. Uh, but if that’s not the case, then obviously we’ll see what else is out there for him. But again, this this is not gonna affect any negotiations moving forward for us. That’s what I was that’s the way I was going. Before I let Molly chime back in here, my last question to you is there is there anything particularly emanating from this whole Micah Parson’s brewhaha that you want to express to the public at large out here as you know as it pertains to your business, as it pertains to player representation, Micah Parson specifically, or anything like that? Is there anything that you want to address or you want to say that you don’t believe anybody is focused enough on? I think the most important thing is that Michael wanted to be a Cowboy, right? You know, he he grew up cheering for the Cowboys, you know, wore the blue and white at Penn State, wore it in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys. He wanted to be a cowboy. We did everything we could for him to remain a cowboy. We reached out and like you said, I don’t really do these interviews. We try to keep the negotiations out of the media, but in this case, so much information has been put out there that we wanted to just address a couple things. But as far as Michael’s concerned, he wanted to be a cowboy. We did everything we could. And sometimes you got to be a little careful with what you read in the media, uh, as far as what was offered to Micah, the guarantees that were offered, the APY that was offered, there’s so much that goes into an NFL contract. If you look at, uh, many of these contracts that the Cowboys have done over the past few years and the recent ones, you know, the guarantees don’t stretch much much further than the first new year. If you look at Micah’s Curtain deal, he has guarantees into, you know, four years from now. So again, there are certain things that have been put out in the media to to make it look as though Micah had turned down uh a fair or a great deal, but that’s simply not the case. David, so appreciate both your time and transparency joining us here this morning. Real quick before we let you go, just want your thoughts on this. Adam Shfter reported that Micah might need an epidural to play against the Lions this week. How is his back doing? He’s doing much better. He was prescribed some anti-inflammatory, I think steroids of some sort. uh by the Cowboys, which he’s been on for almost a week now. And uh if that doesn’t get him to a point where he can get on the field, I know Mike is going to do everything he can to get on the football field for the Packers. Uh so we’re just waiting to see how he kind of feels going into this weekend and whether that shot is going to be necessary or not. But what I would tell you is Mike is going to do everything he possibly can to get on the football field the same way he did when he was in the Cowboys jersey. My last question, I got one question before I let you get on out of here, David. Was Jerry Jones accurate when he said that he offered to make Micah the highest paid non-quarterback I’m sorry non-quarterback in NFL history? Was he telling was he honest when he said that? So that’s a loaded question. Right. So from an APY stamper standpoint, if you’re just looking at the average that there was offered to him, uh I believe it was 40.5 was the offer which would have made him at the time from an APY standpoint the highest paid. That being said, the way the cash flow was structured over his first three new years, he would he would not be paid as the highest player uh highest paid player in the NFL. So again, that’s why I say the devil’s in the details. And another important part of the contract was a four-year deal versus a five-year deal, right? When you look at that, that fifth new year could be the difference in 30 to $40 million for the player. You know, if you look at where the pass rusher market was a year ago, it was at 35 million or so with Nick Bosa. Now it’s at 47 million in one year with Michael Parson. So four years from now, what do you think that number is? It’s probably closer to 65 $70 million a year. And if we lock in that 50 currently at $40 million just that year alone is worth an additional $30 million to Micah, if not more. And that’s not even counting the raise that he got for the next four years. Or the fact that the Packers uh were were, you know, were good enough to us that they gave us the the fifth year option as a linebacker this year as opposed to a DN. So that’s an additional $3 million. So, you know, the difference between those two deals you’re looking at could be possibly, you know, 60 $70 million when it’s all said and done. One more question because Michael Parsons was quoted as saying that, you know, he, you know, he wanted to get this done, definitely wanted to get done, and we all can imagine that he did. Um, but we got the impression he was prepared to sit out the season if it came to that. Was that ever uh something that you fath that that that did you fathom that you anticipated could potentially happen the course? Never. I mean, Michael loves the game too much. You know, he was going to play no matter what. He, you know, he had a back injury. I know a lot of people like to put the quotations around the back injury, but he had a back injury. He was on medicine for it. The Cowboys physicians uh said he had a faceted joint sprain, as well as Dr. Watkins, who’s arguably the best back uh doctor in the country, spine doctor in the country. So, no, he had a real injury, but at no point did he plan on that keeping him off the field. The Cowboys were never told that he would not play. He always he always intended to play football. He was going to be on the field Thursday to play against the Eagles. So, I’m not sure exactly, you know, why that’s being said about Micah throughout his career. I think he’s missed five games his entire career as a Cowboys. So, I’m not sure where that came from. He’s played through many of injuries. David, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. And congrats on the deal with the Green Bay. All the best. [Music]

Micah Parsons’ agent, David Mulugheta, joins Stephen A. Smith and Molly Qerim on First Take to discuss Parsons’ blockbuster trade sending him from the Dallas Cowboys to the Green Bay Packers.

0:00 Parsons to the Packers
1:26 Mulugheta joins
2:50 What did he say to Jerry Jones?
3:30 Was an agreement reached?
6:40 How personal was it?
9:10 “Micah wanted to be a Cowboy”
10:20 Parsons’ back injury
10:55 What was offered to Parsons?
12:33 Would Parsons have sat out the season?

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