It was almost exactly seven months ago that the Dallas Mavericks became the laughing stock of pro sports with their shocking midnight trade of Luka Dončić to the Lakers. General manager Nico Harrison immediately became the most well-known executive in basketball, and in the worst way possible.
While that ordeal was the worst case scenario for Mavericks fans, it had to offer a bit of a reprieve for Jerry Jones. After the Cowboys missed the playoffs and Jones was effectively left at the altar by Mike
McCarthy, whom Jones had foolishly forced to coach into the final year of his contract, fan unrest was at an all-time high. The promotion of Brian Schottenheimer did nothing to change that.
Just over a week after Schottenheimer’s promotion, Harrison and the Mavericks ripped the negative spotlight away from Jones. It bought enough time for Schottenheimer to win some fans over with his charisma and encouraging coaching staff. That was coupled with the Netflix documentary, America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys, which largely explores and relives the glory days of the 90’s. For a brief moment, it felt good to be a fan of this team again.
So much for that.
Jones shocked the world on Thursday afternoon when the Cowboys agreed to trade Micah Parsons to the Packers. Dallas gets a decent haul – two first-round picks and three-time Pro Bowler Kenny Clark – but it’s unlikely to ever match the type of impact that Parsons had in his four years with the team.
The move marked a sudden, shocking, and ultimately miserable end to a completely avoidable feud with the team’s best player.
Parsons, of course, is a defensive demon. Arguably the best defensive player in the league, Parsons has posted at least 12 sacks in all four years and routinely been at or near the top of the league in pressures despite consistently being the most double-teamed defender in the NFL.
He was also a Swiss army knife, capable of lining up practically anywhere on the field and wreaking havoc. Mike Zimmer even built his defense this past season around giving Parsons the freedom to line up wherever he wants and go from there. That’s the kind of player Parsons is.
That kind of player is one you pay whatever dollar amount it takes to keep him. Ideally, he’s also the type of player you pay said amount to as soon as humanly possible. Jerry Jones did not seem to care, though.
He and son Stephen Jones – who proudly proclaimed at the start of training camp to be the one at the driver’s seat for contract negotiations – dragged their feet on extensions for both Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, which put the team behind the eight ball on Parsons too.
Then came the most confounding element of this saga. Jones, who has been negotiating deals with players’ agents for decades, decided that he was going to cut Parsons’ agent out of the process entirely. That agent, of course, is David Mulugheta, who represents a ton of players around the league. Simply put, he’s not someone you can afford to make into an enemy.
Yet, Jones’ hubris knows no bounds.
Jones has remained adamant throughout this entire standoff with Parsons that he believed to have reached an agreement on terms of a deal with Parsons one-on-one, without Mulugheta involved, and that he felt offended when Parsons turned around and told Jones to speak to his agent. In Jones’ view, that offense is why the two sides had not spoken in months.
Of course, that excuse wouldn’t fly for a first time GM who had literally never been involved in contract negotiations before, so it certainly doesn’t fly for the longest tenured GM in the league who has three Super Bowl rings and the most valuable franchise in all of sports.
Simply put, there is zero excuse for this on Jones’ part. Every single other deal he has ever reached with a player has been done with the involvement of that player’s agent. There is no good reason to suddenly exclude the agent in this process, especially when it’s your best player whose contract is sure to be massive and complex.
This is a case of Texas-sized hubris. Jones felt like he could get a discount with his star simply because Parsons grew up a Cowboys fan and because he and Jones have such a good relationship. What he didn’t account for, though, is Parsons being savvy enough to realize his own worth, and to also recognize that Jones was actually disrespecting him by trying to pull a fast one.
Just like McCarthy in January, Parsons understood that respect is not a two-way street in Frisco. So he forced his way out of the organization, as that is the only way to deal with someone who doesn’t truly respect or value you. If Jones did have respect for Parsons, he would have done him the decency of treating him the same way every other player in the league is treated when it comes to contract negotiations.
Even though Jones has said multiple times before that he would do anything to win another Super Bowl, he very clearly isn’t telling the truth when he says that. Actions speak louder than words, and Jones’ actions say that there are, in fact, a lot of things he wouldn’t do to win another Super Bowl.
He won’t spend big money in free agency. He won’t sign players early to avoid rising markets. He won’t put up a sun shade in the stadium to avoid blinding his own players. He won’t bring in an actual general manager. He won’t stop giving tours of the locker room while players are working out. He won’t pay the money for top dollar coaches or an expanded training staff.
And, as it turns out, he won’t even speak to the agent of his best player to work out a contract.
As the Netflix documentary has reminded us, Jones is a gambler who has won big a lot more often than he’s lost. But any gambler worth his salt has to understand when it’s time to cash out. Jones is not that type of gambler. His luck of the draw ran out a long time ago, but he keeps saying “Hit me” and expecting 21.
The Jerry that spared no expense in the 90’s would have been disgusted with the Jerry that is allowing his beloved franchise to wither away in the 2020’s. And that is really the only reasonable reaction to this trade and the series of events that led up to it: disgust.
