Dallas Cowboys training camp is barely open, but Jerry Jones has already made himself its main character.
Speaking with reporters on Monday, the longtime Cowboys owner was predictably asked about Micah Parsons’ contract situation. And while explaining the team’s apparent reluctance to make its star pass-rusher one of the league’s highest paid players, Jones certainly raised more than a few eyebrows.
“Contracts are four, five years, okay,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of water under the bridge if you step out there and do something in the first two or three. You can get hit by a car, seriously. And so, there’s a lot to look at over a lot of years that could make a big difference. Have you ever heard of any clubs committing to players, and then they didn’t pan out after they committed to them? We have.”
Well then.
“Contracts are 4, 5 years, okay? There’s a lot of water under the bridge if you step out there and do something in the first 2 or 3. You can get hit by a car, seriously.” – Jerry Jones on the holdup in signing Micah Parsons pic.twitter.com/ltI7Jsrre7
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 21, 2025
It’s obviously not every day that arguably the most famous owner in sports references the potential of a player getting hit by a car when discussing contract negotiations. As such, Jones’ comments made for natural fodder on Tuesday’s episode of First Take, with ESPN’s Kevin Clark offering a hypothetical of his own to explain the current state of the Cowboys.
“When I look at Jerry Jones, I think of one thing,” Clark said. “If the football Gods came down and said, ‘Jerry, you get to win the next three Super Bowls. You get to have the exact same early-90s glory days. Everybody’s watching the boys on Sunday. You got the triplets back, everything is going Jerry’s way. But the catch is, you can’t do a press conference. You can’t talk. You can’t go in front of the cameras and make it about Jerry.’ He looks at the football Gods and he says, ‘no deal.’
“And the reason I know this is because he hasn’t changed anything. He knows what the flaws in his organization are, and yet he looks at it every year and says, ‘You know what this organization needs? A little more me, a little more me, a little more me.’ Every single year. And so if you don’t want to change, nothing’s going to change. That’s why I know he prioritizes that over building the football team.”
Kevin Clark: “When I look at Jerry Jones, I think of one thing: If the football Gods came down and said, ‘Jerry, you get to win the next three Super Bowls… but the catch is, you can’t do a press conference…’ he looks at the football Gods and says, ‘no deal.'” pic.twitter.com/sIHyIWsci8
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 22, 2025
Clark then reiterated his belief that the Cowboys are actually relatively well-run from a football standpoint, giving the franchise a fairly high floor each season. But at this point, it would be tough to argue that the owner’s public press conferences aren’t negatively impacting the team; look no further than Parsons’ reaction to his comments.
So where does that leave Dallas? As a clearly talented football team, but one that very few are expecting to end its nearly 30-year Super Bowl drought anytime soon. That is, of course, unless the football Gods make Jones such an offer, and he proves Clark wrong by trading in his press conferences for another trio of Lombardi Trophies.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.