The Josh Innes Show - Why Aren't More People Talking About The Parsons Injury?

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

If you Google Micah Parsons, most of the stories you'll see are about Jerry Jones and the trade. Very few of the stories are talking about his injury. How is it that a dude may need an epidural to play and everyone is glossing over this? Is he risking further injury by playing this weekend? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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the Defender 110 pushes what's possible. Learn more at land rover.ca. There you are, pushing your newborn baby in a stroller through the park. The first time out of the house in weeks. You have your Starbucks, Venty. because, you know, sleep deprivation. You meet your best friend. She asks you how it's going.

You immediately begin to laugh. Then cry. Then laugh cry? That's totally normal, right? She smiles. You hug. There's no one else you'd rather share this with. You know, three and a half hour sleep is more than enough.

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Glad you're with me today. Appreciate you all for listening. Make sure you tell your friends. Make sure you tell somebody. If you listen to this pod, just tell someone that you listen to it and say, hey, give this shit a listen. It's pretty entertaining. It's not bad. It's, it's, we talk about a different, you know, a wide variety of things. So, and that's the beauty of it. There's five different episodes usually every morning. So if there's something you're not interested in, like I'll, I have one guy who I message with, and sometimes he says, I'll just skip certain episodes because that's not a topic

I'm into. Great. Just tell your friends that there's plenty of options on this podcast about topics and different things you find interesting. So come on, friends. Come on. Get in here. But, you know, there's a story that I don't feel is getting.

enough play? Like, to me, it's a pretty big story considering what happened last week in the NFL. There's a story that's getting very little coverage, and I feel like it should get more, unless maybe I'm wrong. We'll talk about that, and this Micah Parsons injury. We'll do that after these words. All right, it's game week, baby, and we are ready for football with Draft King Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the National Football League. You know, I love my live bets, but I'll also put in some pregame spread bets over unders, anytime touchdowns, we do it all. And get this, new customers.

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Scotiabank banking package. Learn more at scotiabank.com slash banking packages. Conditions apply. Scotia Bank, you're richer than you think. So last week, the biggest story on the planet is that the Cowboys were morons and traded away Micah Parsons. That's what the angle was everywhere. There was no positive taken on how the Cowboys handled the situation.

There was no silver lining. It was, there are idiots, and they are the Cowboys, and they have allowed the greatest defensive player ever to go, and it doesn't matter what they got in return for him, it wasn't going to be enough, and the Cowboys are idiots. Then we find out that Micah Parsons is dealing with an injury. It's an L4-L-5 facet joint sprain that, according to Ian Rappaport of the NFL network,

and they don't know if he's going to play against the Lions in week one, and he may take an epidural. Boy, epidurals are, oh. so again it's not apples to apples right because you know i'm not an NFL player i don't have access to the treatment that these NFL players have so like i was listening to the radio yesterday here in detroit and some old guy calls one of the the sports radio station about this and he's like well i had such and such back issues and i had epidurals and i don't know these just aren't the kind of things you recover from all that quickly and

the point being that like the guys on the air were like you know dude it's a little bit different being like the treatment you're getting versus probably what this guy is getting, which is top of the line, you know, the treatment. So again, I understand that it's not apples to apples. I understand, you know, because I got a few spinal taps, right? When I had that issue where they were trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with my brain, I kept getting spinal taps. Sometimes I would ask them, like one time I went into a place and brought myself to the emergency room and said, hey, last time this was happening, they did a spinal tap, so I think you should do a spinal tap, and they did a spinal tap because I asked them to do it. It turns out I didn't even fucking need it.

Like, I'm trying to think of how many spinal taps I had, which I would imagine is essentially in the same family as an epidural. It may be the same thing. I don't know. I guess no, but an epidural would be injecting something for pain, right? Like you always hear about epidurals with, you know, gals in labor. So mine wasn't an epidural so much, I believe, as mine was like a spinal tap. I was having a, you know, just giant needle shoved into my spine, which is what that is like. There was just no pain medication going into mind. There was nothing to help any sort of pain. It just happened. And then what ended up happening is, is I had this done. It was done poorly. So it caused something called a, oh, I forgot what the hell it was called. But it required

what is called a blood patch. But because of this, and I didn't know it, something caused me to have these dreadful headaches. And, like, I couldn't get out of bed and we couldn't figure out why I was getting these headaches. And it turns out, after Googling, Jilly discovered, like, early days of WebMD, 2011, 2010, 2011, that I needed something called a blood patch. And we went into a place and said, hey, I think I needed this blood patch. And they're like, oh, turns out you do. And they did that.

Then my headaches went away. But I tell you all that to tell you this. I don't know what the future holds for Micah Parsons. I don't know if this is something that's going to linger. I don't know if this is something. I would doubt it's career threatening, probably. But I feel like this story isn't getting all that much attention. Like you go to the front page of ESPN, you're not really seeing a ton about it.

If you Google Micah Parsons, if you just go out and Google the dude, the top stories are, agent says that Parsons' first choice was to be a cowboy, and Micah Parsons' agent discusses Jerry Jones and what led to the Cowboys trade. Micah Parsons agent reveals Cowboys Contract Details after trade and record-breaking contract Mike Vrable discussed why the Patriots didn't pursue Micah Parsons Then like the bottom of the top 7, 8, 9 stories you see about Micah Parsons There is one that says Micah Parsons has facet joint sprain May be able to play Sunday with versus Lines

Again, I might be looking way too much into this And I might be the dipshit But I feel like if a guy just made this record-breaking deal and this guy just left the Cowboys and it was the biggest story ever and Jerry Jones is the biggest dip shit on the planet according to all these stories. I feel like

this would be a bigger story that after getting this deal done that you're talking week one between the two teams that are the most likely to compete for the NFC North. They are the two favorites to win the NFC North. Currently the Packers are the favorite to win the NFC North because of the addition of Micah Parsons.

I feel like this story should be a bigger deal than it is. And maybe I'm wrong, and maybe I'm overreacting, and maybe I'm the dipshit here. This just feels like a bigger story. But it isn't anywhere. Like, if you click more news, like the top

four stories, Micah Parsons traded to Green Bay Packers from Dallas Cowboys. Second wave of stories. Mike Vrable explains why the Patriots didn't trade for Micah. And then C.D. Lamb talks Parsons trade week one matchup against the Eagles. Ranking the

Top NFL defense is after the Parsons trade. Bear Star gets candid on Packers' Micah Parsons trade. Bombshow report reveals why Panthers refused Micah Parsons trade. Finally, will Micah Parsons play week one versus the lion? Bruce Ariens would have made the Micah Parsons deal. And then you'll get like a random one in here. And this is from the Landry hat. So this is probably, if I had to guess after clicking on this,

This is probably a Dallas Cowboys fan blog powered by fan-sighted. Surprising Micah Parsons' injury update emerges just days after Cowboys trade. Like, I feel like, now I'm going to Google this. I'd like to know what an L4, L5 facet joint sprain is. Let's look at prognosis. Let's see what the prognosis is for somebody with this. The prognosis for an L4-L-5 facet joint sprain generally involves a recovery timeline of two to four weeks with appropriate management, though this can vary significantly based on individual factors and the severity of the injury.

Key to a positive outcome is proper treatment, including physiotherapy, with manual therapy, therapeutic exercises, and potentially supportive devices, factors like age, weight, and ability to manage activity. Again, this is a young dude, mid-20s, world-class athlete. This is probably nothing. But to me, when you start talking about back injuries, when you start talking about that kind of stuff, I feel like it's a bigger deal. Like sometimes the media makes way too big of a deal out of stuff that's not a big deal. And that's usually about everything, but it's usually about political stuff or racial stuff or gender stuff. And, you know, the stories that, like, you know, like the media makes a big deal out of Bob McNair saying the inmates run the prison.

and that's like weeks worth of coverage right like that's what the media does the media looks for those kind of stories and then runs with those kind of stories that's why it's shocking to me that this story isn't getting that same coverage isn't getting that same run isn't getting that same fervor from the media like it's just a handful of stories it's not a big deal to anybody and again it may not be that big of a deal I might be the one making the you know too big of a deal out of it but I feel like after a guy assigning record deals or a record deal, I feel like no one knew this guy was dealing with any sort of injury, and now he may not play in week one. And if he does, it's because he got an epidural.

Factors influencing the prognosis. Individual response. Everyone heals differently so recovery times can vary. Avoiding or reducing activities that irritate the inflamed joint is crucial. compliance with treatment adhering to physiotherapy and other prescribed treatment significantly impacts recovery. Severity of the sprain, a more severe sprain involving more significant ligament damage may require a longer recovery. So, again, it may be nothing, but it may be something. Like if you read other treatment options, wearing a back brace can help stabilize the area and support healing.

Again, obviously it's not that big of a deal because we're not hearing that Micah Parsons is walking around in a back brace. Medication and injections, steroid injections may be used to reduce inflammation and provide pain relief, allowing for earlier functional improvement. See, that's the thing. If we're at that point when we're in the other treatment options category, if we're at the treatment option of shoving a needle in your spine and injecting yourself with. pain reliever, to me that says that it might be kind of a serious, at least pain-wise, has to be somewhat serious. And the fact that this isn't getting all that much run, again, go back and look at the headlines of Micah Parsons, look up Micah Parsons, Google Micah Parsons.

I'm not seeing anything about, like, there's a handful of little stories about this. Maybe nothing. Might be something that we look back on and go, oh, that was just a blip. That was something that it turns out didn't really matter. But maybe it does. Like, okay, how about this? L4, L5 facet joint sprain, can it linger? Do you have to let it linger?

L4, L5 facet joint sprain can linger with healing times varying from weeks to months depending on the individual and the severity of the injury. While many acute sprains heal with rest and proper treatment, chronic symptoms, Okay, let me ask this. This is good. I'm glad that we're having this conversation, chat, GPT. L4, L5, Fasten Joint Sprain. Question about it, chat GPT, or the Googles, as it were.

Should you play football? Let's see, common spine injuries, return to plays usually between six to eight weeks. Let's see, and it's back, and may take an, like, if you need, to take an epidural. That's the next question. Okay, I enjoy it. This is my co-host on this podcast. Jilly is not awake at this time of day.

Really, no one is. I'm doing this at 3.38 Central where most of my listeners are. So no one's awake. The co-host of this thing is, in fact, chat GPT. L4, L5 facet joint sprain. Like, if you need epidural, is the injury on the worst. end. Again, probably a weird question. An epidural is not necessarily a sign that an L4L5 facet joint sprain is on the worst end, but rather that the pain is radiating down your leg,

which can be caused by irritated nerves. For a facet joint sprain, a facet joint injection would be more appropriate to target the localized pain. However, if the facet joint sprain has caused or contributed to nerve irritation leading to radiating pain or a pinch nerve, an epidural may be used to treat the nerve issue, not the phasid joint. Okay, so here's a good question. Why? Why would an epidural be recommended? An epidural is a suitable treatment when there is radiating pain down the legs and extremities,

such as sciatica or radicolopathy. Radicalopathy? Is that how you say that? Nerve irritation. It's effective in reducing inflammation and nerve sensitivity, which can be a component of pain, originating from structures like the facet joint, but extend to the nerves. An epidural can also be used diagnostically to help confirm a nerve-related issue or a short-term treatment to alleviate pain.

So there, again, may not be that big of a deal. It may be nothing. One more question, chat, GPT, and then I'm done. if you need epidural, should you be playing football? No, if you need an epidural for an L4, L5 facet joint sprain, you should not be playing football. Why is nobody asking this? Like, maybe they aren't, I just don't see it. But like, if we're hearing that this guy has an L4, L5 facet joint sprain, and he needs to get an epidural for it,

it's obviously bad enough to require an epidural, then why, why are you playing football? This indicates significant injury that likely involves severe pain and potential instability. Again, this is the internet saying this. So who knows how true it is? This is my lady, Chad GPT. As this indicates a significant injury that likely involves severe pain and potential instability, let's see contradicting the strenuous

and high impact nature of the sport a return to play protocol requires being pain free with full strength and range of motion which you would not meet with this condition could you make it worse okay so if you okay now we're all now I'm deep now I'm deep and I'm asking the real

questions no one else is asking legit questions I am let's see so if you need an epidural should you be playing football and can it be made worse by playing no you should not be playing football with a facet joint sprain especially if an epidural is recommended as it can significantly worsen the injury and potentially lead to further damage including nerve involvement you must be symptom free and fully healed now I'm also not naive enough to think the dudes just go out and play pain free but if I just signed a young dude, a dude in his mid-20s to a giant deal.

I made this big trade, gave up a couple of first-round picks to get him. My first thought isn't, well, shit, we better rush him back to the field to make sure he's ready for week one of the first year of this long-term deal. Like, I'm not doing that. So, like, why is nobody else asking this? Like, again, maybe I'm the one overreacting. But, like, if I'm a fan of, or if I'm not just a fan, but if I'm not just a fan, but if I'm, you know, someone associated with the Packers, and I know that I've got this guy

long term and we're paying him a shitload of money, my first thought is what can we do to help him get healed now and not make something worse? If chat GPT is correct and the internet wouldn't lie, this injury can be made worse by masking the pain with an epidural. Like, has anybody followed, and I'll have to find it, but has anybody followed up on these things and gone, hey guys, quick question. This is Smith-Smitherson from, you know, Cowboys fan. weekly. I have a quick question. If he needs an epidural, that means you're taking a shot in the

fucking spine for pain. Is it possible that maybe he shouldn't play? And they'll go, well, you know, these guys are tough. They're like super duper troopers. You know, they're going to play through it. Yeah, but this dude's in his mid-20s and he's the best defensive player on the planet, maybe. And he's the guy that's the future of your franchise defensively. Why would you risk this becoming a nagging injury so he's ready to go in week one against the past? hackers or the better rather the lions they'd go well first get your teams right putt it'd be like no fuck you i'm from cowboys fan weekly okay i'm from downtown i don't feel like this guy's gonna play and if he does i like i wouldn't i wouldn't play the guy i mean yeah you want to

win the division but if it means the guy sits out a week to try to get right so he's ready for the next 16 or sits out two weeks to make sure he's ready for the next 15 is that a thing? I don't know. No one's asking these questions. I don't get it. But like this story is buried. Like every story is still, oh, the cowboy's fucked up. But there's no, there's a handful of buried stories about how a guy needs a fucking epidural to play. And no one looks at this like, huh, that's kind of weird. Anyway, more to come.