The Dallas Cowboys aren’t making a spectacle out of Micah Parsons’ return to AT&T Stadium on Sunday.
Dallas will not play a tribute video when Parsons takes the field with the Green Bay Packers for their Week 4 matchup. The Cowboys traded the star pass rusher in August to Green Bay after a contentious contract dispute.
The team has honored former players in the past, including Emmitt Smith and Ezekiel Elliott, but owner Jerry Jones said Parsons’ return doesn’t call for the same treatment.
“I don’t think that’s appropriate this way,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “Emmitt [Smith] was a different story. That’s not to diminish Micah. I think Micah has enough welcome out there and we just need to show that we’ve got antidotes for that.”
Smith spent more than a decade in Dallas and helped lead the Cowboys to multiple Super Bowls. Elliott played seven seasons with the franchise before returning as a member of the New England Patriots in 2023.
Parsons’ time in Dallas was shorter, but impactful. He didn’t finish out his rookie contract, yet still tallied 52.5 sacks over four years, earned two All-Pro nods, and made four Pro Bowls.
Cowboys Say Micah Parsons Trade Not Personal
Negotiations between Parsons and the Cowboys hit a breaking point during the preseason. Jones publicly criticized his star pass-rusher with some bizarre comments, while Parsons made his displeasure clear through his actions and a public trade demand.
Despite the fallout, Jones has maintained that he holds no hard feelings toward Parsons and stressed that the move wasn’t personal.
“Not at all. It was nothing personal. I told you, I like Micah. There was no issue regarding feelings relative to the negotiation. Certainly not on my part. It was just par for the course,” Jones said. “The facts are, the negotiation was ongoing. People made a lot of that we weren’t talking. I had on the table the best deal I could do — period. I wanted to see, by chumming it up out there [on the trade market], what Micah might be worth in trade value. That was the plan all the way through the negotiation.”
Micah Parsons Downplays Facing Cowboys
Parsons has also downplayed the matchup with the Cowboys. His focus is on doing his best for the Packers, who are looking to rebound from a stunning Week 3 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
“I accepted my fate weeks ago when the trade happened,” Parsons said. “So, for me, it’s just all about playing another game and just doing what I do best, and that’s just be a disruptive football player. I think the media and the fans are trying to blow it up to be such a big thing. But I just look at it as just another game at AT&T.”
He did admit that having to get after his old quarterback, Dak Prescott, will be “painful.”
“It’s going to be painful,” Parsons said. “That’s my guy. He was always like a good mentor for me. But you know how it is, he always told me if I ever faced him that it’ll be a great matchup, so I’m excited to see what Sunday brings itself.”
Parsons and the Packers are a 6.5-point road favorite against the Cowboys, per ESPN BET.
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