Stephen A. calls for Micah Parsons to SIT OUT the rest of the season 👀 | First Take

Stephen A. calls for Micah Parsons to SIT OUT the rest of the season 👀 | First Take

We’re going to go to another confusing contract situation. It’s another day. Another day has passed and Michael Parsons remains without a new contract and it doesn’t look like it will get done anytime soon. Our own Adam Shfter has reported the two sides are farther away from a deal than they were back in March. And that extension is no longer a guarantee. Yesterday on First Take, Stephen A shared his thoughts on what Micah should do from here. Take a listen. If you’re Michael Parsons, and I don’t think it’s going to come to this, please don’t get me wrong, but in the interest of discussing his contractual business, I think he’s got to be willing to sit out the year because I think that’s the only language that Jerry Jones and Steven Jones at this particular moment is going to going to understand. Okay, Chris, what do you think? Do you agree with Stephen A that Micah should sit out the rest of the season? Well, lovely Kimberly A. Thank you. He’s the only one. This is this is actually the rare instance where I will agree with my guy Stephen A. Smith. The only way for a player to exercise his leverage is to threaten to withhold services. That’s what you got. Your your body is your business. You are the commodity when it comes to the business of the National Football League. And if you’re Micah Parsons and the Dallas Cowboys don’t want to move closer to you, don’t want to initiate talks when it comes to a serious negotiation, then you have to be willing to sit out games. There’s no reason for Michael Carson’s to incur further risk of injury. The guy has proven everything he needs to prove. Since he came into the league, he’s tied with Max Crosby for amount of pressures. He’s got 330 of them things. He’s got 52 and a half sacks, which is top five. I mean, the guy leads the league perennially in pressure percentage. He wins a third of his pass rushes. That is unprecedented in terms of how dominant he’s been through the first four years of his career. There’s nothing more for Michael Parsons to do on the field. Now he’s got to be resolute in how he handles his business when it comes to off the field. Kevin, what do you think? I think sitting out the year does not give him leverage. NFL stars have the least leverage out of anybody in sports because the way the franchise tag works. I mean, just ridiculous. His contract can expire and the Cowboys can keep him for three extra years and they will have cost certainty there. That really kneecaps any negotiation that you have. So, the only way to get leverage is to get closer and closer and closer to free agency. And that doesn’t uh that plan does not include sitting out a year and having one more year added towards free agency. The other thing is we talk about the Jerry Jones understanding anything or you know speaking that language. Jerry Jones is not going to change for anything. We have 35 years of data on this one situation is not going to change the way he operates. So no, I would play I would get closer to free agency and try to get some some sliver of leverage in a league where that is next to impossible. Stephen, listen. Listen. Of course you don’t want to sit out. You want to play. You want to be active. But in the same breath, you don’t want to go out on the field knowing that, you know, you could get injured and you’ve got a lucrative contract down the pike for the future. I’m just looking at some of these contracts that that that you know that have, you know, that involved Jones over the last several years and it involved holds. I remember Dez Bryant in 2015, 5 years, 70 million, 45 million guaranteed. Ezekiel Elliott, remember him? Six years, 90 million, 50 million guaranteed. Zack Martin, August of 2023, two years, 36.85 million. That was fully guaranteed. CD Lamb missed all of training camp, all of all, you know, all all of that stuff. And he ultimately signed on August 26th, four years, 136 million with 100 million guaranteed. And of course, the most conspicuous one was for Dak Prescott, September 8th of last year. Four years, 240 million. 231 million guaranteed for a quarterback that’s entering his 10th year and has two playoff victories. That last part is important. And here’s the reason why. Because Jerry Jones has actually brought that contract up to justify holding out on signing Micah Parsons. He hasn’t done that with any other player that I mentioned or anybody else for that matter. Hasn’t done it. But when it comes to this particular contract with Micah Parsons, what he’s trying to say is that damn it, that damn Dak Prescott burnt me. But the problem is Dak Prescott was injured last year, missing the last nine games of the season. If you if what you should have said was I held out on paying Dak Prescott because of what he did for me the first eight years, which wasn’t enough, and I shouldn’t have gave him the damn money last year. That’s what you should have said, which is on Jerry. But you can’t use that analogy because that ain’t Micah Parson’s problem. Micah Parsons is one of the top five defensive players in the National Football League in the eyes of many. He’s an elite pass rusher 12 12 sacks or more over the last four years. Only the great Reggie White has done that in NFL history. 52 and a half sacks for crying out loud in his career. 100 112 quarterback hits. What this man brings to the table, he deserves his bag. He deserves his paper. But here’s the biggest reason why. And this is where Micah Parsons compares to a Terry McLuren. Micah Parsons has been somebody that is a benefit and an additive to the Dallas Cowboys locker room and to the Dallas Cowboys culture. He wanted to sign earlier, was willing to take less earlier, and Jerry Jones and those guys didn’t want to entertain it. They wanted to make him wait. And so what we have to remember and understand, this isn’t a dude that’s just holding out because contract negotiations haven’t gone well over the last couple of months. This is a guy that’s been waiting over a year now to do a deal, was willing to do it less, was kept waiting, and then when he talked to Jerry Jones and things were going well, it nos dived once his agent got involved. You Jerry Jones, you a businessman. What the hell are you doing talking to a player to the point where when he gets his agent involved, suddenly you ain’t happy? His It’s not the player’s job to negotiate his deal. It’s the agent’s job. But now you want to put him behind the eightball and take advantage of him by making sure that you get to do business with somebody you know ain’t qualified to negotiate against you. That’s his agent’s job. It’s slick stuff like that that we have to speak out against because normally they’re telling the player, “Look, man, leave that to your agent. We ain’t going to talk business with you directly.” But now you want to do that and you want to punish him for getting a person that he’s hired to actually do the business that he’s qualified to do. It’s ridiculous and we need to make sure we say so. D2 and a half sacks. He trails only Miles Garrett, TJ Watt, Trey Hendrickson, and Nick Bosa in that category. Pretty good list to be on. the the importance of Michael Parsons and the fact that the Dallas Cowboys have six to1 odds to win that division behind the Eagles and the Commanders. Where does this end? Well, it ends with Jerry eventually caving in in giving Michael Parsons the contract. So, I I know there’s a lot of bluster. I think that’s just a part of how Jerry negotiates through the media. That’s a tactic that he’s always employed. He eventually caves as he did with all those major contract negotiations. Remember, Zeke Elliot went down to Cabo and said, “Holl at me when you got a contact on the table.” He signed right before the season started. So, I don’t think Jerry has any illusions of his team getting to where he wants to go without Michael Parsons because he is the best player on the Dallas Cowboys and he’s the most versatile defensive weapon in all of football. Kevin, do you have something quick before I go? Yeah, I just want to say the injury risk is overblown. Aiden Hutchinson had a seasoning injury last year. The Lions can’t wait to pay him. That’s going to get done soon. So, I think in modern football with modern healing and all that stuff, uh, even if he got hurt this year, he’d be paid. So, I think I think you’ll play this year and get paid. Got it. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Kevin Clark and Chris Canty discuss Micah Parsons’ ongoing contract situation with the Dallas Cowboys.

0:00 Stephen A.’s advice for Micah Parsons
2:13 Kevin Clark says sitting out will not give Parsons leverage
3:00 Stephen A. on why Parsons should sit out
6:54 How could this end?
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