It wouldn't be a Dallas Cowboys offseason without some drama, and we saw just that on Friday when safety Malik Hooker ripped Micah Parsons over his podcast.
As the Dallas Cowboys enjoy some free time before the start of training camp in late July, there has been drama building throughout the franchise.
There were reports that head coach Mike McCarthy is getting "fed up" with Jerry Jones, which have since been refuted, and now teammates are beginning to go back-and-forth on social media.
Cowboys safety Malik Hooker raised some eyebrows with his comments during an appearance on Keyshawn Johnson’s All Facts No Brakes podcast.
Hooker was asked about his thoughts on professional athletes starting podcasts and marketing themselves on social media when he took a direct shot at Cowboys star edge rusher Micah Parsons, who held out of OTAs and part of mandatory minicamp. Hooker questioned where Parsons' focus is if he's spending so much time on his podcast.
“My advice for Micah would be: just know we’re all right and being where your feet are,” Hooker said. “Because if we’re at work, and the run game’s terrible, but you’re doing a podcast every week and you know the run game is terrible, then what are you really caring about? Are you caring about the crowd that ‘s watching your podcast? Or caring about the success of our team and the Super Bowl that we’re trying to reach?”
While those comments generated plenty of buzz on social media, Hooker also showed Parsons some grace, pointing out that the defensive star is a "big kid" who is still growing.
“But also, people got to remember Micah’s young,” Hooker said. “He’s still trying to find his way, he’s still trying to grow into who he’s trying to be. So I give him grace.
“Micah’s still a big kid. And you can’t fault a big kid for trying to expand, as well as experiencing stuff that they ain’t really been through. Micah’s only been in the league four years. There’s still experiences, stuff he ain’t been through. He ain’t ever been through real adversity yet. He hasn’t seen that. So I feel like, over time, over these next couple years of experiencing adversity, you’ll see him start to change how approaches stuff like that, like the podcast and stuff like that.”
As long as Parsons shows up to training camp in shape and ready to contribute at an All-Pro level once again, all will be forgiven. Of course, the Cowboys would probably prefer that Parsons cuts back on his podcasting during the season.
Parsons took a similar approach last season and recorded 64 total tackles, 18 tackles for a loss, 33 QB hits, and a career-high 14 sacks. Repeating that level of production would be welcomed by new defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer.
The Dallas Cowboys will jet off to the West Coast on Tuesday, July 23, before the opening press conference the following day. The team's first training camp practice is Thursday, July 25.
