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Kirk Herbstreit Offers Contrarian Opinion on Cowboys' Micah Parsons Trade

Jerry Jones move earned applause from one pundit.

Kyle Koster

Kirk Herbstreit has a dissenting thought on the Parsons deal.
Kirk Herbstreit has a dissenting thought on the Parsons deal. / Get Up on X
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After a prolonged back-and-forth and countless television segments, the Dallas Cowboys sent Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers in a blockbuster deal. Jerry Jones is, on the whole, not receiving high marks from football fans for his decision. Nor are they buying his explanation that this actually all about stopping the run game.

But there are dissenting voices, including Kirk Herbsteit. The dual-threat college football and NFL analyst went on Get Up Friday morning and pleaded for people to just hear him out.

"I now it sounds crazy," he said. "But I applaud Dallas in letting [Micah Parsons] go."

"I look at this in a different way," Herbstreit said. "This is a new coach trying to build a new culture and your alpha, your best player is sitting out in a negotiation that's not working out. Not only that but just some of the optics of it with some of the things he did during camp, it just wasn't good. And then the drama ... is going on and on and on between he and the organization and Jerry Jones. I think at this point it is probably best to just give him his opportunity to go to another franchise."

Herbstreit sees this as a new start for the Cowboys as they try to build things up defensively and wondered what Parsons did behind the scenes to impact a defensive culture that did not translate to much success on the field.

Thing is, it's sports so Jones could walk away from all of this looking like a genius. It'll probably take a few years for that to happen and no one's going to give him the benefit of the doubt until that hypothetical Super Bowl crown is on the Cowboys' head.

Or, as many predict, the resolution of this awkward situation will be nothing to applaud.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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