The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD - Hour 1 - Micah Parsons Farewell

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

Jason McIntyre, in for Colin Cowherd, discusses the big deal that sent DE Micah Parsons from Dallas to the Green Bay Packers, why Jerry Jones decided to make the trade, the tumultuous year in sports in the Dallas area, and Jane Slater stops by to offer up the Cowboys perspective on the deal. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Find your local station for The Herd at Fox SportsRadio.com, or stream us live every day on the IHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast. Good morning. Los Angeles. It's me, Jason McIntyre here on The Herd. Happy afternoon to the East Coast. Folks, it's Friday.

It is a beautiful day, a culmination to a spectacular week. Listen, Rachel Nichols and I have had a banger of a week hosting this show. I mean, listen, we had the Taylor Swift. No days off, Jason. The engagement. No days off. You know, news every day. I'm looking at my notes here.

I angered the Chicago Bears fan base with this Caleb Williams stuff. I'm just hoping, Rachel, we can close with like any, it's some good news on a Friday. And, um... Good news if you live in Green Bay. We were gifted. Basically, I mean, the gift that keeps on giving. Like, this is amazing. Michael Parsons traded by the Cowboys, would have happened like two hours after our show?

Yeah. And, um, I walked in the gift. morning meeting and I said, are we going to just do three hours on Michael Parsons? We could. Coward texted me. That should be the entire show. I was like, yes, sir, got to, yes, sir. Coward will be back next week. But let's start there. Let's start with the Green Bay Packers, basically putting on ski masks going into Dallas and stealing Micah Parsons from the Cowboys for peanuts. I cannot believe that this trade happened. I think obviously Green Bay won the trade. There's many angles to break down here. I'm going to go with the Packers angle first because I do

think, and I haven't seen a lot of other takes on this, I think the Packers are right there as one of the best teams, not only in the NFC, but in the league. This puts them in the serious Super Bowl consideration. I had them in my tier two for Super Bowl contenders earlier this week. They clearly vault to one. I mean, I don't think people realize just how good Micah Parsons is. Okay? This move going from Dallas to Green Bay, I believe is bigger than the Matt Stafford trade from a few years ago. When the Rams got Matt Stafford, everybody was excited. Obviously, it led to a Super Bowl.

But Michael Parsons is in his prime. He's only played four seasons in the league. Matt Stafford was 33 a little older. You know, the Christian McCaffrey trade was big. Khalil Mack trade was big. This is seismic. I mean, folks, Michael Parsons, again, I know he takes a lot of heat for inside the locker room stuff, his podcast.

We will address that because it bears some discussion. But let me just remind folks. Micah Parsons in year one was runner-up defensive player of the year. Okay? He's been an all-pro three times in four years. He has 12 or more sacks in every season he's played so far to start his career. It's not hyperbole to say Michael Parsons is already on track to be a first ballot hall of famer after four seasons.

He's in the discussion with the likes of Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White, Miles Garrett, as one of the greatest pass rushers in NFL history after four years. Now, we don't know what's going to happen, obviously, but Parsons is a terror coming off the edge. And if you're the Green Bay Packers and you look at your defensive roster, and you're like, oh, we got Gary, we got some good linebackers, we got a good team. What you didn't have with that blue-chip superstar

where you go in the divisional round of the playoffs and the opponent looks at how are we going to block Michael Parsons? What are we going to have to adjust stuff? You have to scheme specifically for Parsons. Now, teams have done that in the playoffs with some success. But you look at Gary coming off the other edge, and this Green Bay defense suddenly is a wrecking crew. And I would like to point out that their odds after the draft to win the Super Bowl were plus 2,200.

Okay, that was after the draft. And I'll tell you why the draft is important. This morning, they went to plus 1,200. So right now the Packers were right there, cream of the crop. They're in the Ravens, Bill. chiefs, Niners, they're right there at the top. And the draft is important because I missed this and I was kicking myself this morning for missing this.

I think everybody did. But at the draft, the Green Bay Packers in the first round, we know what they don't do in the first round, right? They don't take wide receivers. Aaron Rogers bemoaned that fact. He openly was like, we don't draft receivers in the first round. We need one. I need some help.

Packers have a really good wide receiver room. It's deep, it's young, it's talented. They got a lot of guys. and they drafted a wide receiver in the first round. I was like, oh, Matthew Gold. It's not like he's Jeremiah Smith or something. Golden, really nice player. He's like $5.11, a buck 90.

I know he's a burner, but it was a mild surprise. They broke character at the draft getting Matthew Golden. And I should have noticed at the time, but smart businesses sometimes adapt and change and say, we've done things one way, we're going to make an adjustment and we're going for Golden. Now, their wide receiver room, I mean, it doesn't have that high end,

Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, but in terms of depth and talent, it's top four in the league. Golden is going to be that guy. Get him on your fantasy team. Now you add Micah Parsons, a massive trade. What did we hear from NFL pundits all week, guys?

Packers, they're not going to get Michael Parsons. They don't do that. They don't make these huge, splashy trades. Haven't done that forever. Once again, the Packers break character, go out and get a superstar, a blue chip. How do we stop that guy coming off the edge? And I believe the Green Day Packers probably

will be in the NFC championship game. I'll say likely against the San Francisco 49ers. And then we get the Trent Williams matchup against Michael Parsons. And boy, Green Bay fans, you've got to be absolutely geeked. I got a buddy who is a Milwaukee Brewers fan and he's a Green Bay Packers fan and he's doing cartwheels. He's like, Brewers, baseball. Packers, football. it's a great day in Green Bay. And by the way, for those who are saying, well, Packers overpaid and we'll address it, Jordan loves contract.

They got him early, guys. He is only the 13th biggest cap hit at quarterback in the league. You want to take a guess whose first this season? Dak Prescott, biggest cap hit in the league. And let's move to Dallas now and address that side of the trade. I want to start positive because I might want to earmuff at Cowboys fans. this is going to be a little negative. So there's this fun exercise that I've been told to do.

You know, you turn 30 years old and you're supposed to look back at your younger self and write a little letter and say, man, don't you wish you knew this at 20? And then you do it at 30, you're like, oh, man, in my 20s, relationship stuff, maybe you're finding your potential mate, work, you're getting out of college, and some stuff you could learn and you give it to your younger self and you hand it down to your kids, relatives. So when you do it at 40, it's mostly about. you know having kids buying a house that next step of life but when you read about this the one thing

that it keeps coming back to is you need to act with less emotion in relationships and work just chill out calm down now if you couldn't tell i tend to get emotional sometimes specifically about sports and i think jerry jones got really emotional here and made a horrific decision okay if we're to believe Micah Parsons, who told Jane Slater, by the way, she's going to be coming up as a guest here in about 30 minutes, he told Jane Slater that after news broke this week, that there were trade talks for Micah Parsons, Micah and his agent, who his agent's really good, went to the Cowboys with, quote, empathy, and they wanted to get a deal done. And allegedly, according to Michael Parsons, Jerry Jones got very emotional and told Micah and his agent, play on the fifth year or leave.

Folks, that is not how you run a football team. That is amateur hour. Amateurs act on emotion. Pros, they look at the numbers. And the numbers said, Jerry, you bungled this badly. And for those out there who were screaming, Jay Mack, wait a minute. They didn't overpay. And they got an extra first round pick.

And they got Kenny Clark. Kenny Clark ain't very good, but that's another story. Guys, the reason that this got this far was because Jerry didn't do this last year. If he had gone last year and said, you know what, we can't afford C.D. Lamb, DAC, and Micah, you do this last year. You could have made the deal last year and got more for Micah Parsons. Why wait so long? I mean, at worst, if he had done this at the beginning of the offseason, Jerry gets a bidding war started among several teams.

Now there's a report that the Raiders had called, but they were late to the game. I understand he's a billionaire, and I understand he's had success, you know, 30 years ago with Jimmy Johnson winning a bunch of Super Bowls. But did Jerry just totally misplay his hand here? Well, yeah, clearly. He bungled this so badly. Folks, paying DAC and Lamb and knowing that you can't pay. Micah, you should have done this last year. Now, Jerry Jones took, went in front of the media on Thursday after the trade,

and guys, he claims he's been thinking about this trade for a long time. We did think it was in the best interest of our organization, not only the future, but right now, this season as well. We've gained a pro bowl player in an area that we had big concerns. concerned in or concerns in on the inside of our defense. The facts are specifically we need to stop the run. And we haven't been able to stop the run at key times for several years. Boy, if I was allowed to use expletives on the show,

I would have come out of that quote and said, what the are you talking about? We need to stop the run? What kind of alternative universe is Jerry Jones living in? Folks, okay, fine. You knew you needed to stop the run at the draft. Let's take a look at the Cowboys draft, shall we? They got an offensive lineman, an edge rusher, a cornerback, a running back, a linebacker, an offensive lineman.

Oh, there, pick 217. Mr. We've got to stop the run. You waited 217 picks to get a defensive tackle? What? Like Jerry's saying stuff that doesn't even make sense. Guys, I got a buddy who's a cowboy fan, his daughter plays on my daughter's volleyball team. You know, we've known each other,

we coach soccer together. He texts me, I'm literally crying right now after the train. He was like, what are we doing? And, you know, this isn't just Jerry screwing up the mic a deal and then trying to lie to everyone's face. Like, what do they call that? I think it's called gaslighting. Hey, we knew we needed.

it to stop the run. So, you know, we added Kenny Clark. Like, bro, come on. Nobody's believing that. And oh, by the way, Jerry has a recent track record of trades. Now, boy, they got Mingo, the wide receiver from the Carolina Panthers. Yeah, he's on IR to start the season. And even when he returns, he's looking at being the projected fourth or fifth wide receiver on the roster. They gave up a fourth round pick for Mingo. And do you remember Trey Lance? They thought, Jerry thought he had a great deal for Trey Lance. I mean, he gave up a fourth round pick for Trey Lance. Not on the roster.

Through a whopping, oh, sorry, he played four games. Trey Lance played four games after Jerry Jones traded for him. I mean, does this guy even know what he's doing? One of the producers here, as I'm walking up to the set goes, Jay, I had a good line when you left the morning meeting. If Jerry Jones wore his shirt inside out to the facility today, would anybody in Dallas have the Cajonis to tell him, hey, a billionaire owner or boss, your shirt's inside out?

Because it feels like nobody is telling Jerry what he needs to hear. And the Cowboys right now are a disaster. By the way, their odds, because I know you guys love odds, to win the Super Bowl, 60 to one longest that they've been since 2014 before the season. That's according to ESPN. So the Cowboys are a long shot. They're probably going to win five games. I know there's some people out there who are like, hey, we got four first round picks now, Jay, in the next two years.

We'll address that later. Rachel and I have many layers to this story. So be patient. It's the super terrific happy three hours of Micah Parsons and the Green Bay Packers. Rachel, I'm fired up. If you couldn't tell, I'm a little emotional. This is an incredible story and not the way we thought this was going to end. I mean, we talked about this possibility of the Packers trade all through yesterday's show.

and every single person we had on, including Greg Jennings, was like, Frame Bay doesn't do business this way. Unbelievable turn of events. Coming up next. Dallas, forget about Micah for a moment. Earlier this year, you guys traded Luca. I mean, who's under fire more Nico or Jerry? Like, it's getting ugly in Dallas.

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We'll address all that. But I want to go back to a next layer to the Micah Parsons trade. And Rachel pointed this out in the meeting this morning. So it's been a rough eight, nine months for the city of Dallas. You guys remember in February, out of absolutely nowhere, Luca Donchich, I think it was a Saturday night. Saturday night, 11 o'clock Pacific. What time? What time?

Like 11 p.m. Pacific. Yeah, it was very late. Yeah. Luca gets traded from the Mavericks to the Lakers. And it was like, oh my gosh, the internet like wobbled like an earthquake in it. And everybody was shocked. Mab's fans were crestfallen. They had just gone to the finals.

Everything's looking great. Luca, you know, was injured. But to trade him was like, what are we doing? And Nico Harrison was under major fire. They lost a ton of money because of, I think sponsors backed out. season ticket, hold it. It was a mess. Now, they did get lucky with Cooper Flag in the draft, so that has eased some of it. But for that to go down in February, and now in August,

Michael Parsons, the most popular cowboy, I know DAC has beloved, but come on, guys, Michael Parsons is the heartbeat of that team. To trade him, you just have to wonder what the vibe is in Dallas. Here's an old photo. Michael Parsons and Luca swapping jerseys. By the way, Luca, for you guys don't know, he's huge. Michael Parsons is a monster. Luca towers over him, okay?

And I was thinking, like, growing up, my brother and I, we love, like, the Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and the peanuts, the whole saga where Lucy would, like, tee up the football and Charlie Brown would whiff. It feels like that has happened this year to Dallas. You lose Luca. You lose Micah.

how does it how on earth does dallas trade two transcendent superstars i mean guys the parallels here are staggering luca given what he did in his first like five years in the league is on track to be a top 10 player all time i don't care what you think about lucca he doesn't play defense blah blah blah his numbers over the first five years are historic micha parsons same damn thing his numbers through four years are unbelievable that's why i said laurence taylor reggie white and i'm sure when I go on social media later, people will be like, just stop putting him in that class, actually know the numbers show that he is on that track.

Both of these guys are first ballot Hall of Famers. Both were traded. Now, interestingly, the Mavs didn't love Luca's conditioning. He was beloved by teammates. They didn't love his conditioning. Micah's a little different because if you guys remember, DeMarcus Lawrence, a beloved cowboy defensive lineman, got into a bit of a beef online with Micah Parsons.

And I asked this question because I don't think anybody knows the answer and we know what happens when superstars get traded. Within the next 72 hours, 96 week, you start to see the hit pieces. And I am pretty sure we're going to see some. Micah Parsons was a locker room distraction. I mean, DeMarcus Lawrence called him out when he left and was like, maybe if you stopped tweeting and podcasting, I'd still be here. I was like, oh, whoa, that's a shot across the bow.

And Jerry has made some veiled references to off-the-field stuff with Parsons. Nothing bad, nothing awful, but just distracted. Now, I can't tell if this is the modern young athlete. You know, Caleb Williams built a little different at quarterback. Michael Parsons has a podcast. Now, I haven't seen a podcast episode drop regarding this trade. I don't know if the Packers are like, bro, we need you to do. that back. Remember, Aaron Rogers is getting paid to do radio hits. Like, there's a lot of new stuff

going on, and I don't know if old school guy, Jerry Jones, was really cool with this modern athlete who was kind of sort of bigger than Jerry in some ways. I mean, Michael would drop a podcast and everybody's talking about him. Is there a world where Jerry's saying, ain't nobody bigger than the Cowboys brand or me? I'm still the man here. Micah, thank you for your service. You're out. Let's go to Rachel Nichols with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. Jason, we got so much more, Micah, to come. But let's quickly check in on the Bengals. They've had Burrow, Chase, and Higgins all available in training camp this preseason. For the first time in years, they're all healthy. And head coach Zach Taylor is saying that's giving them confidence going into the season. Now, J-Mack, that's lovely. I'm listening to all of this and all I can think of, you were already the number of.

you were already the number one scoring offense in the NFL last season, number one. So it's great that all these guys are healthy. I'm glad you're celebrating that in training camp. But isn't it the defense that we should be worried about with the Bengals, ranked 25th last season? I mean, are they focusing on the wrong thing right now? Yeah, I would agree. But, you know, if you have to pick,

you would rather be loaded on offensive defense, right? Yeah, but I'm saying, they're saying, hey, this is the first time in years. We've been healthy. This is amazing. We had a training camp last season where guys were just coming back from injury or sitting out. Okay, you know what that got you? The number one scoring offense in the NFL. I'm not worried about them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're good. So, I don't know. Yeah, it's interesting. By the way, Bengals at Packers, week six, that should be a good one. Yeah. Basically, Michael Parsons chasing Joe Burrow around.

I was going to say, this trade has turned so many games into. Yeah, yeah. It should be a good one. But week four is Micah Parsons against Dallas. Not just against Dallas. In Dallas. Sunday night football. That's going to be, yeah, that's circle that one on the calendar.

Let's get that September 28th. Yeah. If you got a wedding to go to, sorry, make sure the phone is charged. You know that kind of deal. Here we go. Let's talk a little Ravens. Lamar Jackson had an incredible season last year, but he'd, of course, call it a failure because it didn't end in a Super Bowl.

So this year, he says he's trying to learn to be more vocal, more of a leader. He has really been on his receivers in practice when they drop passes, bait interceptions. His quote was, I'm not angry at you or anything like that, but when we're competing out here, I need you to be a competitor because I'm extremely competitive. I don't like to lose and you should feel the same way. Now, we know, again, same as the bagels, right? Regular season, Ravens, regular season, Lamar, good. He's good.

Doesn't really need a lot of improvement there. But do you think that this more aggressive attitude over the seven? 17 weeks will translate into better playoff performances when it counts. I'll lean, yes. You want to work to build up to the playoffs. But the sad thing is for these guys and the bills, like, great, you win 12 games, wonderful. Can you beat the Chiefs in January? That's really what it's...

I mean, I know that sounds bad, but would you say that's the truth? Oh, it's completely the truth. But if you're Lamar Jackson, how do you prep for that? So if that's the thing that people have been saying to you, yeah, you can't get it done in the playoffs, right? That's the only knock on him because otherwise he's been phenomenal. So how would you prep to do that better now for him? This is what he's trying.

Yeah, it's probably going to be tough for him to stay locked in the whole regular season knowing, hey, playoffs, that's what it's all about. I did just look. Packers host the Ravens. Week 17. Now it's flexible. So I'm going to go ahead and guess that's going to be flex to probably Sunday night, right? Prime time. That's going to be an amazing game. Boy, Michael Parsons gets to chase Lamar Burrow. Oh, gosh. That Packer's schedule. It's not easy. That's for sure, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. All right, we'll talk a little bit more, Michael Parsons, all right? So all of this situation, you talked about it at the top of the show.

A lot of spotlight on Jerry Jones as a GM. So I wanted to look at how the lack of planning by the Cal How that's cost them. So first, I'm going to look at the dollars, right? Bill Barnwell of ESPN, no analytics guru. He wrote, I think it was like a 10,000 word piece breaking down every moment that the cowboys could have extended them, these guys, what the market was at the time. These are his calculations. If they first extended DAC when they could have over both of the contracts he signed,

they would have saved $49 million. If they first extended CD Lamb when they had the opportunity and what the market was, they would have saved $14 million. And if he had extended Micah last year when he did the DACN CD deals, remember he said, we'll worry about him next year, we'll worry about him next year. He could have saved $36 million less

than what Micah eventually signed for in Green Bay. So that's just the money, by the way. And that all adds up to about $99 million. You could have been paying other players. And then, of course, you brought it up. When do you put, if you say, Yeah, well, we're here now. And Michael Parsons, we need to trade him.

If you had put him up for trade in the spring, you could have gotten him out of the conference. Yeah. What do you think that the bills would have given you for Mike Parsons? What do you think the Bengals would have given you for Michael Parsons? You brought up the Raiders, right? The trade package, even if you stayed in the conference, the Packers would have been forced to give you more.

Yeah. So just the opportunity cost at not making these plans for Jerry as a GM has to be part of this conversation because it's part of what got us here with this trade. I look forward to reading that. It's just bad business, right? There's no way around that. And I know, and listen, I like, so I don't know how much I've told you about myself, but I wanted to be a lawyer when I was a young kid. So I like to argue both sides. And sometimes I'll argue against Micah and then, you know, sometimes I'll argue for it.

I don't think there's any other side to this trade, at least right now. You know, if they get, we don't want to, I don't want to tease the Archmanne. They go, they get Archmanning, he's a superstar, they trade up. That changes the thing. But right now, like, can you, what's a real argument, Rachel, right now that this was an okay deal? I mean, the argument to me is just that they were in this position in the first place. It's like gross mismanagement. I remember two years ago sitting on the set right across the stage over here, talking about how they had coming

up, the DAC deal, the CD deal, the Parsons deal, right? We knew it. F.S.1, we were talking about it. They didn't plan for that because if you were staring down the barrel of those three guys needing to get paid and you just decided roster construction-wise, it's just not a good idea for us to put this much money into three players. To me, and this is no disrespect to CD-LAM, I'm paying and keeping the two guys who affect every snap of the ball on their side. The pass-rrrrrisher and the quarterback affect every snap of the ball cd yeah i mean sure he's a decoy out there or drawing a defense when he's not catching but he's averaging seven i think catches a game so that affects such a smaller percentage of of your game of your plays like i i just the decision making and

forethought here over and over and over again even just to get us to yesterday is something i don't think we're talking about enough did you see that venus williams and serena williams movie with Will Smith. Yeah. William's sister. Yeah. He, I'm pretty sure that was the movie where he had this great quote. If you don't have a plan, plan to fail.

Yeah. And it feels like Jerry did not have a plan. He was just kind of winging it. Just about how much money. Yeah, $19.9 million. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd lie news.

All right. So Rachel, we have a treat here. So Jerry spoke yesterday. And it was kind of chaotic. I did not see this quote, but the staff just showed it to me. Here is Jerry Jones being asked, hey, man, you said a few months ago you would never trade Micah Parsons. What changed?

Listen to this answer. You said that you were never considering trading Michael Parsons. Was that a tactic at the moment, or did your tune eventually change in the last couple of week? Do you really think if I wanted someone to be interested in him that I would say, oh, I'm going to trade him? It's the opposite. It's the opposite. 4D chess, 5D, I don't... Guys, I'm sorry.

Just think about it. Guys, can we just have the... Can we just play hit... I don't know if he just play the end of it, but when he looks, he's like, do you think I'd really... It's the op. Like, ah.

Listen, I know bad ownership. As a Jets fan, Woody Johnson is, for my money, the worst owner in the league. I don't see how Jerry's like right there with him after this debacle. I mean, it's unbelievable. All right, coming up next, Jane Slater NFL network.

She spoke to Micah. First person to speak to Micah. She's got all the details. That's coming up next year on The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd. Weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what?

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Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. All right, Jane Slater, NFL network coming right up. Real quick, maybe I should stop bashing Jerry Jones and just thank him. He's the gift that keeps on giving. Folks, he just keeps opening his mouth at the podium and saying things. And I know I used the term gaslight earlier, and I hate, somebody used it on me, and it really annoyed me. But I feel like if you're a Cowboys fan and you hear this stuff, you just got to be like,

bro, come on, just stop running the team. You don't even know what you're talking about. This was Jerry yesterday, okay? Frame of mind. Jerry yesterday on what he first thought about a Michael Parsons trade. There was no question in our mind that Michael could bring us a lot of resources on a trade that has been on my mind since we hired Brian. This trade was not just thought about today. This trade has been going on in our minds and our strategies and being talked about.

it's been going on All Spring. It culminated today and it came quick, but that's the way things go. All Sprit, really? Okay. I'm really happy for you, Jerry. I mean, honestly, it seems like you seem like you won

this deal. You're really trying to sell a really hard. It's like your buddy starts dating a new girl and then he introduces her to the crew. And you guys hang out one night and pretty much she Cruz universally like, yeah, I know, she's not that fun.

Probably not a good, but guys, she's so cool and smart and hot and like, she's awesome. Trust me, but everybody meets her. And they're like, I don't think it's a good fit. But he's really trying to sell his crew on this new girlfriend. And I feel like Jerry's trying to sell the fan base. Hey, we got a good deal here. All right, let's bring in Jane Slater from the NFL Network. She spoke to Micah Parsons yesterday.

Jane in her car. Jane, I imagine you've been on your phone basically all night. This is crazy, chaotic. Just give us the latest. Yeah, normally this wouldn't be my setup for you, Jason, but I am actually here at the Star in Frisco where Kenny Clark just got here. So we're going to get to meet him. We'll see him at practice for the first time.

And then they'll open up the locker room, and we will get their reaction to trading what we all know is to be a generation. player, one of their biggest guys on defense and a trade. They got them two first round picks and the defensive tackle to help them stop the run. Jason, I don't feel the need to be sold by Jerry Jones on why they traded him. Covering this team, I can tell you that it had gotten to a point here within the last 72 hours. This was really the only direction they could go. It got so messy.

What he has to sell me on and what he still has to sell a lot of. of us covering the beat and that locker room is why they did it the week before the season started, why they justified the trade because they needed to address their run defense, something they could have addressed along with the trade back at the end of March 1st of April. Wow, that, that you, I could not have said it better. Jane Slater, the insiders on NFL network, 7 o'clock Eastern. All right, Jane, so I'm just curious, your initial reaction, like you said, this has been building. But still, you know, the Packers haven't done a huge deal like this in a while.

It's Micah. When you first got word, were you just absolutely floored? Jerry doesn't do big deals like this. You'd have to go all the way back to the Herschel Walker trade. And look, some people have joked out there that maybe watching the gambler inspired him to go out there and wheel and deal. But the truth of it is the building one here. Starting about two years ago, we started hearing frustrations within the locker room. And when I say frustrations, I don't want to sit here and say that Micah Parsons is a problem player. He certainly doesn't have problems off the field. It's more of in talking to former coaches, one of the concerns was, does he love football or he does he love the idea of being a football player that gets the.

accolades, then gets the camera and the podcast. And there would be frustration when they were in meeting rooms and he would drift in and out. I would describe it as just a real, he needs a coaching staff that's really going to dive in and invest in him. We saw that with Dan Quinn. We saw Mike Zimmer sort of buy in as much as he could, you know, last year. But he's that type of player that just requires a lot of buy-in and attention.

And I think it started to wear on the locker room. Let me change that. I know it wore on the locker room because in talking to previous coaching staffs, in exit interviews, there were a number of players who came to them and said, we have to do something about Micah. Now, I've argued it feels like they have a higher tolerance for off the field issues. And so that's frustrating. But the way that Jerry held his feet to the fire, a 26-year-old,

negotiating a monster deal for the first time. And because he wanted to rope in his agent and Jerry sat there and said he didn't want to get a third person involved. He didn't want to renegotiate this thing. That's the thing I continue to have a problem with. He's talked to players in the past. It's just I think Micah got in a little over his skis here. He thought because of his relationship with Jerry that they could work it out. but I think this was a little in over his head,

and I don't think it's fair that he was punished because of that or that they let it linger as long as they did. That, to me, is what hurt their team. I think you could have sold a lot of us around here on the trade in March, April. It's just when they did this, I think the catalyst was some of the defensive moves from Mike and his agent this week. Looking for a second opinion on the back, and then the filing of grievances,

I think the building started asking themselves, is he even going to be available to us? Is this going to be something that lingers and becomes a distraction heading into the season? Remember, we had Mike McCarthy and his coaching staff on expiring deals last year. And that really did weigh heavy on the locker room. Everyone's energy and their approach. Talking to people yesterday, it feels like this gives them a little bit of a clean slate. I think everyone's disappointed. They're as shocked as we are that this is where it got.

But I think people realize, especially with the training table incident on Friday, where he was laying on the table watching the game, it was brief, but it was that body language that they don't want from a leader, and they certainly don't want to invest in for years to come. Wow, that is explosive stuff. Jane Slater, amazing. Let me ask you, who was the leader on that team? And did they try to talk to Micah Parsons?

Because we know DeMarcus Lawrence, and he had some words on social media. But I'm just curious if anybody in the building tried to get. through to him during these defensive meetings where he's doing whatever or not locked in. Possibly. And we'll be in the locker room today. We can ask about that. What I will say about my comparisons and what I appreciate about him, she reminds me of some of the 90s players. Jason, you know, the guys that have a rawness, you can't tell him nothing. I remember he was sending out a bunch of tweets his rookie season. And it was, you know, getting involved in military and politics. I was like, you might want to be careful. And he just stood on business.

And when we asked him, I think it was last year in the locker room, point blank, I said, why aren't you here for voluntary OTAs? A lot of the guys live in the area. They have a really high turnout. You know, I know it's voluntary, but if you talk to a lot of the players, that's how they gel, et cetera. And he said, into the camera with his chest, I don't get paid the sort of money some people do to show up here and be at voluntary OTAs. I'm here when I'm supposed to be. So it's it was those little things that I think were frustrating, but I'm personally going to miss his rawness, uh, his conviction. And you saw it here. I don't think I've ever seen a player stand toe to toe with Jerry Jones the way that he did. I mean, the fact he walked

in a letter to Stephen Jones, looked him in the eye and said, I want the trade and then showed up every single day to training camp while Jerry's up in his tower and he's there on the sidelines, jersey over his shoulders some days, a hoodie, a beanie on. Dealing with the Joneses, that takes a stomach. And that's why I say he is a different dude. So I'm sure there were people that likely spoke with Micah. But the problem is Micah literally will cure you. He'll receive it.

Do you think he gets it? And then it's, you know, again, I just, I don't think he's easily focused sometimes. I think he's a type of guy you've got to keep stimulating. Oh, boy. It sounds like a bit of a headache for the Packers' defensive coordinator, but also a headache for opposing quarterbacks. Let me just one last question on that. Like, do you think this is just a modern young athlete?

Is this him coming up in the NIL? This is just who he is? Because, you know, we've heard stories about other guys. Trevor Lawrence, does he love football? Like, Micah's got a pretty thriving podcast. He's obviously huge on social media. Do you think he loves football? I do.

I mean, when you listen to him on his podcast, he knows a lot. about it. He's interested and he's interesting. I even hate to call him. That's why I haven't called him a problem player. I don't think he's a problem player. I just think he needs a better fit. And I truly think, you know, when we've had players come here from different teams, they'll say, this is playoff media. You should see the amount of credentialed media that are here today. And this is just every single day. And I think when you're constantly putting a mic in people's faces, is I think this generation does get something from the clicks. I think this generation does get something from the likes.

And so I don't think this is unique to Micah. But I will say, if I'm Micah Parsons, I'm frustrated. You know, there's plenty of guys in my draft class that have gotten extensions. I am a generational type player. Other pass rushers got their money. And I think he just felt, I know this, I'll say this, he felt manipulated and taken advantage of at some point. And, you know, the fact that he came back this week and tried to get something done and Jerry told him play on the fifth year option or leave, it just tells you where this thing had devolved. And I think that's unfortunate.

It feels after watching the gambler a little bit like the Jerry, Jimmy dynamic. You know, they appreciate each other. Maybe one day they'll get past this. But I ultimately think Jerry sort of met his match here. and a guy that was unafraid, moving away that was different than other players who have standoffs with the Joneses, but also believes in himself enough in his talent that somebody was going to pay him what he was asking. All right, we got about two minutes left. Do you think we'll see a slew of hit pieces here in the next, I don't know, week leading up to week one?

Wow, Michael Parsons, you know, he was a problem. He did this, he did that. Are we going to see that? Is stuff going to come out? Or do you think there's just not that much ammo there? I don't think there's enough, Amel. I think what I'm telling you is enough of it. You know, and I think we've been, we've been sprinkling this as we've talked about this over the last six months. You know, it was talked about in the building under, you know, different coaching staffs, etc.

And I think, especially when you cover a beat, you don't want to create unnecessary problems in the locker room. And so I always kind of looked at it as, you know, it's differing opinions. there are big personalities in Dallas. I never thought it rose to the, we've got a cancer in the locker realm. That's not how I would describe my guy. And so if those pieces come out, I don't think that,

I don't think that would be fair. And so I hope that's not the case. You know, I think that Green Bay is going to be a really good fit for him. I think going to a place where he's got a familiarity with the quarterback, there's less scrutiny, and I think he can get back to just focusing on football. I think that'll be a good thing for him. I like that take.

Jane Slater, NFL Network, catcher on the Insiders, weeknights at 7 Eastern on NFL Network. Great stuff, Jane. Enjoy the media crush today. And thanks for taking the time. Thanks for having me on. Yeah. Boy, Jane Slater, great stuff.

Rachel, that was, I thought that was explosive. Some of the stuff should, woo-hoo! I think we're going to be playing those clips here in the coming hours. Further evidence that maybe they should have done this this spring, right? Jerry Botts. If this is going on? Yeah. Yeah.

Unbelievable way. We got a great show. This is fun. Two more hours left. My college football picks for week one. That's next here on the hurt. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers.

I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

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Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel. Help an Acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends

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That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. And every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. and we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlic.

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