Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer has revealed he will sit down with Micah Parsons in the coming days to discuss his ‘behavior’ after he fell asleep on the sideline during the team’s final preseason game.
The superstar linebacker is in an ugly standoff with the team over a new contract and he is yet to practice or play a game throughout the summer.
While not suiting up, he has attended meetings and walkthroughs, and he was alongside his teammates on Friday night for the visit of the Atlanta Falcons – but he stole headlines after appearing to get some shut-eye on the medical table midgame.
‘Without talking to Micah, I need to figure out what he was doing and why he was doing it,’ Schottenheimer said on a conference call with media on Saturday.
‘So, until I talk to him, I’m obviously not going to talk about it.’
Parsons has been dealing with ‘back tightness’ throughout training camp but Schottenheimer said on Saturday that an MRI scan on Friday came back ‘pretty clean’.
Micah Parsons was caught sleeping on Friday as the Cowboys faced the Falcons
Parsons laid on a medical table during his team’s final preseason test of the summer
Speaking earlier in the week, owner Jerry Jones had dismissed the severity of any medical issues, putting it down to a negotiating tactic from Parsons and his agent.
The defensive star requested a trade away from the iconic franchise at the start of August, stating on social media that ‘I no longer want to play for the Dallas Cowboys.’
He’s since deleted any mention of the franchise from his X bio.
Jones provided another nasty turn to the feud on Thursday as he claimed that Parsons’ agent told the organization to ‘stick our contract up our a**.’
While it’s not exactly clear what Parsons is seeking contractually, Jones previously spoke about ‘guaranteeing somebody almost $200million.’
Parsons is negotiating for a new deal following big paydays for fellow pass rushers T.J. Watt and Myles Garrett, which will pay each of them at least $40million on average per year.
Parsons, who has not been practicing in training camp, declined to talk to media after
Head coach Brian Schottenheimer says he plans to speak to Parsons about his conduct
On Thursday, Jones claimed that his offer to Parsons ‘would’ve made him the highest-paid guaranteed player other than a quarterback in the NFL.’
He also accused Parsons’ agent, David Mulugheta, of deliberately sabotaging the negotiations.
Jones said on Thursday: ‘We had our agreements on term, amount, guarantees and everything. We were gonna send it over to the agent.
‘The agent said, “Don’t bother because we’ve got all that to negotiate.” Well, I’d already negotiated that. I’d already moved off my mark on several areas.
‘The issue, very frankly, is we’ve had the negotiation in my mind. The agent is trying to get his nose in it and trying to come in there and improve off what we’ve already said.’
In his previous statement in which he announced his desire to be traded, Parsons acknowledged that he and Jones had discussed what he would want in his contract, but said he didn’t believe it was a ‘formal negotiation.’
He added at the time that the team had not had discussions with his agent once about a deal.
Jerry Jones is in an ongoing standoff with the star linebacker over a potential new contract
On Friday night, fans urged Jones to pay up and give Parsons the new contract he wants
After removing references to the Cowboys on his X bio, Parsons’ bio now references ‘Penn state 2021’, where he played college football, followed by a cryptic ‘TBD.’
Parsons, 26, is under contract with a fifth-year option that would pay him $24million in 2025.
He is a four-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro for Dallas, and only four players have topped his mark of 52.5 sacks since he entered the league in 2021.
He tallied 12 sacks, 43 tackles and two forced fumbles in 13 games last year.
