The Micah Parsons contract saga has spiraled completely out of control for the Dallas Cowboys. The All-Pro defender demanded a trade last week after no progress was being made on a contract extension, and apparently the two sides still haven’t talked since.
Part of the reason things have dragged out? An apparent miscommunication between owner Jerry Jones and Parsons back in March, when Jones believed the two had come to an agreement on a new deal, but Parsons thought they were just informally speaking; the Cowboys were shocked to learn a deal wasn't done when Parsons instructed his agent to reach out after that conversation.
It's a strange thing to have happen with the stakes of the negotiation, but strange is the minimum expectation when it comes to Jones's management of America's Team. On Tuesday the longtime Cowboys owner spoke to media about the situation again and revealed Dallas's front office still hasn't spoken to Parsons's agent, and consequentially he is unsure whether the superstar pass rusher will be ready for Week 1.
Jones also revealed why he thought he had struck a deal with Parsons months ago: he thought they had agreed to a broad outline because of the way he used to do business.
"I bought the Dallas Cowboys with a handshake," Jones told NFL Network's Jane Slater, per The Athletic's Jon Machota. "It took about 30 seconds. I gave the number, shook hands, the details we worked out later. As a matter of fact, one of the details involved a lot of money and I had to flip a coin over that. But the fundamental, 'I'm buying and you're gonna sell it to me for that range,' that's done. And those are done with eye contact and handshake. Just so you understand the way that I communicate with people that I negotiate with. Let's leave it at that.
"There's is no question that in the case of a player contract, you have to have it in writing. All parties do. We have a contract in writing, yet we're still talking about renegotiating, so so much for that."
The cardinal rule in sports has long been that nothing is finalized until someone signs the dotted line. Jones was reminded of that the hard way, it seems.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jerry Jones Explains Why He Thought Cowboys Struck Deal With Micah Parsons Months Ago .
