Cowboys’ Micah Parsons can’t blame the media; he has no one to blame but his mouth

ARLINGTON, Texas — Most of us missed, in real time, the exact moment when Cowboys defensive end Micah Parsons grabbed a verbal shovel to bury his head coach, because it sounded too harsh to believe.

Twenty minutes after Parsons’ boss declared he would not make any coaching changes during this dog mess of a season, his All-Pro defensive player put Mike McCarthy six feet under following the team’s 34-6 loss against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

Parsons was trying his best to avoid a question from a face he knows, Yahoo Sports’ Jori Epstein, about the status of lame duck head coach Mike McCarthy. Parsons’ first answer was fine. The problem was that he kept talking, and stumbled his way into a dumb, yet revealing, statement.

“That’s above my pay grade for if I think Mike is coaching next year,” Parsons told the media gathered around his locker after the game.

If he stops there, it’s fine. Not great, but fine. Alas, in an effort to accommodate us he kept going.

“Mike can leave and go wherever he wants,” Parsons said.

Oh, Micah …. nooooooo.

“The guys I kind of feel bad for are guys like (veteran guard) Zack Martin, who might be on their last year, or on their way out, because that’s who I wanted to hold the trophy for,” he said.

“You want to win games and do great things with those types of legends who put in more time and work than Mike McCarthy ever did. Those are the kind of guys that I have so much sympathy and hurt for.”

(Not believing I heard Parsons accurately, I asked Ms. Epstein if he said what I thought he just said, because that’s a potentially bridge-burning statement.)

He did. Of course, it blew up in his face, but it’s all good. Just more content for his podcast.

“I will be addressing this today! @brgridiron @BleacherReport time for truth and real facts!! Tune into the edge today!” Parsons wrote on Twitter (now called X) after this all took off today as a trailer/tease for his podcast.

Say this for Micah, he learned a few things from Jerry Jones. If you are going to lose, at least be interesting.

It’s all consistent for this 2024 season in which the Cowboys players and us media that covers them are all 3-6. From Jerry Jones’ tiff with the team’s flagship radio station, to Trevon Diggs calling out a local TV reporter, and subsequently apologizing, Parsons is all in with this theme.

This is not a media thing. Parsons may not have meant what he said, and he quickly tried to blame the media for “twisting” his words, but it does not change his tone-deaf statement. He said it.

The sentiment was to express the priority, and sympathy, for a great pro like Martin, who is a revered player in their locker room. The way it reads, and the way it sounds, is one of the Cowboys’ top players doesn’t have the back of his head coach.

Micah can be upset with the media all he wants, but he must be aware that when your team is 3-6, lost four straight, and the head coach is in the final year of his contract, there is only one way to translate such a statement: The head coach is gone, and I don’t care.

Since he came into the league as a rookie from Penn State in 2021, Parsons has every so often said a few things that push the line. Statements that require him to follow up with the standard, “What I meant was …”

As he has grown, and become aware of his status in the league and the power and leverage it creates, he’s become more emboldened to express his thoughts. Having the security, and confidence, to express yourself is a wonderful place, but there can be consequences.

He creates these type of scenarios, and distractions, for himself because he doesn’t know how these statements sound and read.

He is a great player, and you can bet the Cowboys will make him one of the NFL’s highest paid defensive players next year with a new contract. He knows it, and he has little incentive to change much.

McCarthy is probably gone, but Micah doesn’t know that for sure. It’s Jerry, for whom unpredictability is a virtue.

This is the second time in McCarthy’s five-year run with the Cowboys he will have coached the team without his starting quarterback for more than half of the season. The record will reflect that. But unlike 2020, when Dak Prescott played only five games, this current team was going bad even when he was healthy.

The roster isn’t good, and the team’s record mirrors a series of player moves approved by the GM that finally caught up with him.

Micah Parsons may like and respect his head coach, but all he said is what most likely all of the players think — Zack Martin is the priority because Mike McCarthy is gone.