Harry Douglas goes off on Malik Hooker on ESPN's "Get Up." Screengrab: ESPN’s “Get Up”

Malik Hooker’s comments about Micah Parsons’ podcasts haven’t particularly gone over well.

Whether he intended to stir controversy or not, the “bait” has been taken, and the Dallas Cowboys’ safety’s comments on Keyshawn Johnson’s All Facts No Brakes podcast haven’t been well received.

We’ve since seen Chris Long come to the Cowboys edge rusher’s defense. While ESPN’s Harry Douglas didn’t necessarily come to Parsons’ defense, he made it more of a referendum on why sports media discusses the Cowboys so much because they got and do things like this to themselves.

“What are we doing? And people wonder why we talk about the Cowboys religiously,” the ex-Atlanta Falcons wide receiver said on Wednesday’s Get Up. “Well, tell them to stop giving us the damn material. Because this is the material they give us that we don’t even ask for.

“This man is on a podcast, stating who should get paid first, instead of saying, ‘You know what? I love all my teammates. They should all get they money. They should all get paid.’ He is naming who should get paid first, who should get paid second — that is insane to me, y’all, it really is.”

Now we know why Hooker isn’t a fan of doing podcasts himself because he can’t seemingly help himself when appearing on one. Sure, you can give the 28-year-old credit for being authentically himself on a medium. But if the Cowboys are worried about being the topic of discussions, these instances certainly don’t them any good.

And during the summer when morning shows are just dying for anything to talk about it, you probably shouldn’t be handing them controversy on silver platter.

[Awful Announcing]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.