Washington (AFP) – A chaotic off-season for the Dallas Cowboys, capped by the trading of star defensive end Micah Parsons to Green Bay, concludes Thursday when they visit reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia. The NFL’s 106th campaign kicks off with the Cowboys trying to come together under Brian Schottenheimer in his first season as an NFL head coach. Since winning the 1996 Super Bowl, the Cowboys have not made it past the second round of the NFL playoffs. Last season, they missed the playoffs at 7-10 and fired coach Mike McCarthy.
Parsons, the 2021 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, is among the league’s elite pass rushers with 52.5 sacks in four seasons and was seen as the defensive stalwart to build around. However, he was unable to agree on a new contract with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. That impasse led to the blockbuster trade which sent the 26-year-old defender to the Packers for three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark and two future first-round NFL draft picks.
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“I never wanted this chapter to end, but not everything was in my control,” Parsons told Cowboys fans in a farewell message. “My heart has always been here, and it still is. Through it all, I never made any demands. I never asked for anything more than fairness. This is a sad day, but not a bitter one. Thank you, Cowboys Nation, for every cheer, every moment, and every ounce of love you showed me. Wearing the star has been the honor of my life.” Green Bay was able to agree on a contract with Parsons, signing him to a four-year contract extension worth $188 million (161 million euros). The Packers’ visit to Dallas is on September 28.
“Just with the way that negotiations went down…it seemed like it got personal on their ends,” said Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott, the NFL’s highest-paid player at $60 million a season. “We added a great player, got some picks for the future. I’m not going to say we’re better. We’ve got to go out there and prove it.” When Jones was asked why any Cowboys player should expect to be paid what they are worth, Jones replied, “Ask Dak, highest paid man in the league.”
With the money, Jones has said, comes increased responsibility and more pressure to lead the Cowboys to the promised land of a first NFL crown in 30 years. “I want to win a championship. Be damned if it’s just for my legacy, or if it’s for this team, it’s for my personal being, for my sanity,” Prescott said. “The legacy, whatever comes after I finish playing, will take care of itself.”
The pressure on the Cowboys has built with recent Dallas playoff success by the NBA Mavericks, NHL Stars, and baseball’s Texas Rangers. “It fires you up 100 percent,” Prescott said. “Leader of the team, understanding what winning means here, not getting it done, and then watching your brothers across the city go and make things happen, I want it for them. It only raises the stakes and makes it tougher on me. Put more pressure on us.” The schedule will do that. Dallas will face 10 teams that reached last season’s playoffs, four of them in December in crucial late-season contests.
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