There was a question whether Micha Parsons was going to be available to play for the Dallas Cowboys in next week’s opener against the defending Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers. In addition to a protracted contract dispute, Parsons was getting multiple medical opinions on a back injury which was his reason for not practicing with Dallas.
Well, whether Parsons would line up in the Dallas defense has been answered, he won’t. Traded on Thursday to the Green Bay Packers for a pair of first round draft choices and defensive lineman Kenny Clark, a few things have suddenly shifted in the National Football League.
First, the odds on the Dallas Cowboys winning Super Bowl LX went from 33 to one to 40 to one. So far, the odds of the Packers winning it all this year has not shifted off 18 to 1 odds. The Cowboys are still a touchdown underdog to the Eagles for their season opener, but the money line jumped from Philadelphia being a 320 favorite to 350.
The Packers spread for their season opener, they host NFC North Division rival Detroit, now sees the Lions getting 2½ points instead of 1½ prior to the trade.
One other thing, it appears that Parsons’ back injury has cleared up. Do you think that the Penn State alum was using that as an excuse not to practice with the team and risk injury during contract negotiations?
While not keeping one of the premier defensive players on your roster can’t be a good thing, knowing the Cowboys salary cap situation the move was not the worst idea. Parsons is now the highest paid non-quarterback player in the league, if Dallas would have made that deal, they would have had cap problems that would have depleted the possibility of surrounding Dak Prescott and company with talent necessary to win it all. The Cowboys also come out of the trade with an All-Pro Defensive lineman in Clark, and the possibility of having a pair of impact players chosen in the draft that will have at least three years to play under amounts afforded in rookie contracts.
Now the bad news.
The draft is no guarantee of collecting talent that is destined for the Hall of Fame, as Parsons is if his career is not derailed by injury. And the Packers are a good team, Parsons makes them better, so the first-round choices are likely in the high 20’s, another obstacle for grabbing an athlete out of college that is certain to be an impact player.
This is but another chapter in the Jerry Jones legacy in Dallas. After acquiring the Cowboys in 1989, the flamboyant owner from Arkansas fired the only coach the Cowboys had ever had, Tom Landry. Getting rid of Landry in Dallas was like the Catholic Church abandoning crucifixes. The move brought out critics like light scattering roaches.
The move to bring in Jimmy Johnson to coach the team was not warmly received when he compiled a one win and 15 loss record in his first year at the helm of America’s team. But, Jones and Johnson, who played football together at the University of Arkansas and won a National Title in 1964, turned out to be the best combination in the NFL.
Sparked by a trade that sent Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for a number of players that had a contingency to award the Cowboys a draft pick if the athlete didn’t make the Dallas roster, the Cowboys built a juggernaut through the draft. As good as the trade was, and a key reason the Cowboys won back-to-back Super Bowls in the 1992 and 1993 seasons, the trade also created a point of contention between Jones and Johnson.
Both wanted credit for the deal, and their feud resulted in a parting of the ways. Dallas won one more Super Bowl with the talent Johnson assembled after he left the Cowboys in 1993, but the organization has never again achieved the excellence enjoyed while Johnson handled the football side of the operation.
What Jones is best at is making money, the Cowboys are currently ranked as the most valuable franchise in all of sports. Jones took on the league while making rouge deals with Nike and other companies that were against league policy until he challenged the rules. One can only wonder how dominant the Cowboys would have been had Johnson been allowed to remain in charge of football and given credit for that while Jones ran the business.
Jones runs both the business and football operations for the Cowboys, and now Dallas is listed with long Super Bowl odds and has lost one of the best players in the league.
But they are worth a lot of money … It is where Jones excels. Too bad he also wants to run the football side of the Cowboys.