When the Cowboys made the stunning decision to trade Micah Parsons to Green Bay, a few pundits immediately likened the move to the franchise’s Herschel Walker deal from 1989.
According to Cowboys icon Troy Aikman, there isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison between the Parsons and Walker moves. Aikman shared his thoughts on the trades just a few days before Parsons faces the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.
“With Herschel, they were the worst team in football the year before I got there when Herschel, I believe he led the league in rushing that year in ‘88. Then in ‘89, we obviously got off to a tough start and I think that, in a lot of ways for us in the offense and what we were doing, there was a challenge in trying to figure out exactly how to use Herschel within our offensive scheme,” Aikman told Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket (KTCK-AM). “So, the team was bad with him when he led the league. We were bad with him the following year, my rookie year, Jimmy [Johnson’s] first year.”
While the Cowboys of the late 1980s weren’t in a great spot, Aikman brought up that this year’s team went into the 2025 with postseason goals. Unlike the Walker Cowboys, the Parsons Cowboys weren’t the worst team in football.
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“It was not a rebuild and they’ve got one of the best players in the league who was making an impact. They knew how to use him and he was effective when he played,” Aikman said. “I don’t think those comparisons are fair.”
In Cowboys lore, the Walker trade had a pivotal role in building the franchise’s Super Bowl-winning teams of the 1990s. Dallas traded Parsons to Green Bay for two first-round draft picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark.
Will Jerry Jones and the Cowboys build another title contender with their newest trade haul? That’ll be a question to monitor moving forward.
Listen to the rest of Aikman’s radio appearance here.
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