FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys had just gotten drubbed 34-6 to by the hated Philadelphia Eagles, causing them to fall to 3-6. Micah Parsons, who hadn't played in a month due to injury, performed well, but not well enough to keep his team from going 0-4 at home.
All of that created plenty of reasons for Parsons to demonstrate some humility and control in the postgame locker room. Instead, when asked about the future of head coach Mike McCarthy, Parsons launched into a weird and unnecessary monologue about the sympathy he feels for veteran teammates on a losing team, then adding ...
"That's above my pay grade, if Mike coaches again next year ... Mike can leave and go wherever he wants ... You want to win games and do great things with those types of (player) legends who put in more time and work than Mike McCarthy ever did.''
Parsons has since spent the day trying to untwist his silly words, accusing the media of misquoting and misunderstanding him (a valid claim) while failing to understand that he alone lit a fire inappropriately.
The comments went viral and the national media pounced on them and on him ... with his most powerful retort being an invitation to tune into his Monday night podcast so he could talk some more.
To us, two responses have value here. The most powerful one comes from the person wronged, McCarthy. And to his credit, the coach called Parsons in to a meeting here inside The Star on Monday to get some things straightened out.
"Micah and I had a conversation this morning about it, and we handled those things as men should handle it," said the Cowboys' head coach. "That wasn't his intent (to throw McCarthy under the bus) but that's something he can talk on (later this week).''
We believe that to be true. Parsons wasn't purposely trying to hurt the coach or his reputation; he was, in the opinion of our Mike Fisher, for 35 years the Cowboys beat writer, "trying to be funny and cute and dramatic and quotable.'
Said Fish: "I applaud McCarthy for calling the meeting - maybe three years too late - as a way to make Micah understand that he suffers from 'Diarrhea of the Mouth.' There is a way to cooperate with interviews without being incendiary and for damn sure without being mindful that, 'Man, this'll lead to a controversial segment on my podcast.
"There is an art,'' Fish said, "to an interview subject talking without saying anything. The Cowboys would do themselves and Micah a favor by somebody in this building having the guts to demand that Parsons understand this.''
For McCarthy's part, he is trying to stress that this marketing-first Cowboys team "keep it about football.''
"We have so much more that we need to focus on and that's really what we talked about throughout the day today," he said. "We've got to keep it about football, bear down on the things we know we need to improve on, build off of some of the things we didn't. … These are some of the things you've got to eliminate from your culture, and conversation brings resolution. I think this is an example of that."
Good luck with that, Coach.
