GREEN BAY, Wis. — Jeff Hafley’s job as Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator consists of teaching football, but that’s not the only sport he’s educating players about.

His best one, defensive end Micah Parsons, knew nothing about baseball. That’s changing with Hafley’s help. But why is Hafley lecturing Parsons on Mariano Rivera, the legendary New York Yankee and baseball’s all-time saves leader? Because Parsons, like Rivera, is a dominant closer.

“When it’s the fourth quarter and we need a stop, a two-minute stop or we need a sack, Micah Parsons is our closer and he’s going to get the three outs,” Hafley said earlier this season. “And I think he takes a lot of pride in that. That’s how he’s built and I think at the end of the game … people start to get tired and he’s putting his hand in the ground or he’s coming up the middle, wherever we put him. He’s just got a relentless motor and he knows it’s his job to close out the game.”

Parsons ranks third in the NFL with 12.5 sacks, but he leads the league with seven sacks in the fourth quarter, according to TruMedia. He also ranks fifth in fourth-quarter pressure percentage (18 percent) among players with at least 100 fourth-quarter pass-rush snaps and second in total fourth-quarter pressures (25). Parsons has been everything the Packers had hoped, not just in the final 15 minutes, and he’ll need to keep closing games like he has for the Packers to capture their first NFC North title since the 2021 season.

“He’s a problem out there,” quarterback Jordan Love said. “It’s definitely fun to watch him and just the way he’s able to go out there and dominate is awesome.”

Love said that on Thursday, not long after Parsons helped finish off the Detroit Lions in a 31-24 Green Bay win. The Lions, trailing by 10, faced a third-and-goal from the 4-yard line with about three and a half minutes remaining. Parsons lined up outside right tackle Penei Sewell, got thumped by tight end Anthony Firkser and still curled around defensive tackles Warren Brinson and Devonte Wyatt as they collapsed the pocket to sack quarterback Jared Goff and force a field-goal attempt. Fox color commentator Tom Brady praised Parsons’ explosiveness after the play. It’s that ability to generate such speed and power so late in games, when other tanks may be nearing empty, that makes Parsons so much more dangerous.

MICAH PARSONS.#ProBowlVote pic.twitter.com/TgQEKtpHrZ

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) November 27, 2025

Parsons isn’t racking up these fourth-quarter sacks in mundane moments, either. With the Arizona Cardinals on Green Bay’s 26-yard line and trailing by four with about 30 seconds remaining, Parsons sacked quarterback Jacoby Brissett for a 9-yard loss on first-and-10 and forced them to use a timeout in an eventual Week 7 Packers win. Parsons’ sack fumble from behind of New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston on the final play of a Week 11 Packers win prevented any chance of a Giants miracle. Thanksgiving offered another prime example of Parsons excelling in “the hunt,” a phrase he’s used multiple times since arriving in Green Bay to describe his relentless pass-rush pursuit from game’s beginning to end.

“It don’t stop until the hunt’s finished,” Parsons said. “It doesn’t matter (what) play one looks like or play 10. It’s the constant hunt. That’s the excitement, that I know I’m going to get more than one chance. I might get blocked a lot of times. I might get stuffed. That guy’s gonna beat me, but can he beat me every time? I like those odds.”

Hafley grew up 45 minutes from the Bronx in Montvale, N.J., so he knows Rivera well. The only unanimous selection into baseball’s Hall of Fame, Rivera would jog from the bullpen to the mound at Yankee Stadium while Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” blared throughout the park. Hafley suggested to Parsons that Lambeau Field play “Enter Sandman” when he trots out for potential game-clinching defensive plays. Parsons loved the idea, even if he had no idea who Rivera was.

“Whether it was three outs or one out or whatever it was, he was going to put them down,” Hafley said of Rivera. “I told Micah that’s who he is. He needs to put people to sleep, so I think he’s a fan.”

Parsons, who’s also on track to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, said the only closer he knew was legendary boxer Mike Tyson. Baseball was never his thing growing up in Harrisburg, Pa.

“Haf was educating me last week when he told me about it, but ‘Iron Mike’ used to just go in there,” Parsons said. “It’s like, ‘You can’t f— with me. I’m gonna get you out of here.’”

Parsons said he’s ready if the Packers decide to play an entrance song of sorts for him, though, whether it’s “Enter Sandman” or a track from “The Lion King” — Parsons’ own suggestion (in line with “the hunt,” Parsons’ nonprofit, The Lion Heart Foundation, and his alma mater, the Penn State Nittany Lions). It remains to be seen whether this is just a fun conversation between coach and player or an idea that will actually come to fruition starting Sunday when the Chicago Bears visit Lambeau Field for a matchup that will determine who holds first place in the division entering the season’s final four games.

No matter how the Packers acknowledge Parsons, whether it’s announcing him last during player introductions before games, playing music during them or awarding him a game ball in the locker room after, there’s no shortage of appreciation for how he’s started games, finished them and everything in between. Parsons is a distant second favorite for NFL Defensive Player of the Year to the Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett, but only because Garrett should easily break the single-season sack record. Parsons is no slouch himself, both against the pass and run despite what Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said, and is well on his way to his fourth All-Pro nod in five seasons.

“He’s got so much energy,” Hafley said. “Whether he’s in the meeting room, whether he’s on the practice field, game day, he’s a guy that bounces around and kind of lights up the room and just never seems to be stopped.”

What the Packers need from Parsons now, especially in the aftermath of defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt’s significant ankle injury suffered on Thanksgiving, is for him to close the season like he’s closed games all year. From both the edge and interior, and with a tank that never even sniffs empty. If he still can’t be stopped, and there’s no reason to think he can, Green Bay’s long-awaited return to the top of the division is well within reach.