Do not let any of the noise and drama fool you. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is getting exactly what he wants with the Micah Parsons contract negotiation, even as it reached a boiling point on Friday with the star edge-rusher declaring a public trade demand.
It’s the perfect storm for Jones because all of this is doing the one thing that he loves more than anything in the world. It is keeping his team, his beloved Dallas Cowboys, as the top story in the NFL and the top headliner maker in the league.
His team, his player and his story are the one thing that everybody is talking about.
It’s the top headline on every sports website. It’s the top story on “SportsCenter” and ESPN. It’s dominating the radio waves.
It’s put a spotlight on the Cowboys star and driven all of the NFL’s discussions toward them.
It doesn’t matter if it’s overly dramatic — or even bad press. It’s still press. It’s still focus on them. In Jones’ world, the motto of “no press is bad press” is very much a way of life.
He isn’t worried about getting the best deal for the Cowboys or their salary-cap situation, and he might not even be concerned with putting the best possible team on the field. He is simply concerned with the Cowboys being the league’s biggest newsmaker.
There is a reason all of these big-time contract negotiations play out this way for the Cowboys.
Whether it was Zack Martin, Ezekiel Elliott, Dez Bryant, Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb or Parsons, they have all played out the same way. The Cowboys dragged their feet, a holdout was either threatened or started, the bridges seemed to be burning between the player and team, the negotiations would dominate the news cycle and then eventually a new, more expensive deal would eventually emerge.
That is almost certainly how this process is going to play out. Trade demands get made all the time in the NFL, and they do not guarantee a trade will get made. It is often a last-ditch negotiating tactic to speed things along. They usually work in that context.
By the time the regular season rolls around, the Cowboys and Parsons will likely come to terms on a contract, and all of this will be forgotten. It will probably end up costing Jones and the organization more than it would have had they agreed to a deal sooner, but again, that wouldn’t have given the Cowboys the headlines they want.
It is almost as if Jones likes having to pay top dollar because then he can talk about how he negotiated and paid out the most expensive deal. It’s about glitz and glamour as opposed to dollars and cents.
All of this fits in with Jones’ overall mindset and approach when it comes to running the Cowboys.
He is the decision-maker.
He is the football guy.
He is the only owner who does weekly news conferences after every game as if he’s the coach, and he is the only owner who does a weekly radio show discussing the X’s and O’s of the team.
It’s all about satisfying his own ego, and nothing satisfies his ego more than seeing his team and his name in the news. A drawn-out contract negotiation is the best way to do that when there are no games being played.
In terms of on-field success, the Cowboys have mostly been an afterthought over the past 30 years. No Super Bowls, no NFC Championship Game appearances (the longest current drought in the NFC) and mostly mediocre finishes. Any other franchise with that sort of track record would be an afterthought in the NFL. But not the Cowboys. Not Jerry Jones. It is all by design. It’s the only thing they want and care about.
