The Micah Parsons contract situation in Dallas came to a head on Friday as the All-Pro pass rusher demanded a trade from the Cowboys. In a lengthy statement posted to his X account, Parsons said the team refused to play ball on his contract extension for most of the last two years and stated he's tired of it all, so he would like to play elsewhere.
In his statement Parsons also gave his side of a March meeting with owner Jerry Jones that led the Cowboys to believe a deal had been struck.
Earlier on Friday, The Athletic published an article which included a report that Dallas thought terms on an extension had been agreed to following a meeting between Parsons and Jones in March. This belief was dispelled quickly once Parsons got his agent involved again, but the team refused to negotiate further anyway. In his trade request the star defender offered his own explanation for that crossing of wires, saying he met with Jones to discuss leadership and wound up speaking about a contract but in no way did he agree to anything.
"In March I met with Mr. Jones to talk about leadership," Parsons wrote on Friday. "Somehow the conversation turned into him talking contract with me. Yes I engaged in a back and forth in regards to what I wanted from my contract, but at no point did I believe this was supposed to be a formal negotiation and I informed Mr. Jones afterward my agent would reach out thinking this would get things done. But when my agent reached out and spoke to Adam he was told the deal was pretty much already done. My agent of course told him that wasn't the case and also reached out to Stephen Jones. Again the team decided to go silent."
A confusing situation. It's hard to envision a scenario in which the Cowboys earnestly believed they had agreed to terms while Parsons, at the same time, believed it was just chatting. It is also difficult to grasp why the Jones family chose to stubbornly insist they had already agreed to a deal instead of using those talks as a starting point for what had already been a dragged out process.
Regardless, Parsons now wants out and reports have already emerged the Cowboys aren't interested in trading him. Thus, the standoff continues.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Micah Parsons Gives His Side of Jerry Jones Meeting That Made Cowboys Think Deal Was Done.