General overall view of the Dallas Cowboys logo at midfield during an NFL football game between the Washington Redskins and the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

While the NFC Championship Game will be a showdown between two of their NFC East rivals, the Dallas Cowboys are a franchise in disarray.

After an offseason in which owner/general manager Jerry Jones said he was going “all in,” the Cowboys sputtered through a 7-10 season that was marred by off-field headaches, contract drama, and simmering conflicts that ultimately led to head coach Mike McCarthy walking away after five seasons.

Despite winning the NFC East in five of the last 10 seasons, the Cowboys haven’t made it past the Divisional round of the playoffs since 1995, which also happens to be the last time they won the Super Bowl.

The culture around the franchise has been messy for a long time and Jones has often been accused of prioritizing media coverage and money over on-the-field success. Former NFL wide receiver Dez Bryant played for the team between 2010 and 2017, and he took to X over the weekend to express his frustrations with the way the franchise is run and how that impacts the culture.

“From now on, I’ll speak my truth about the Cowboys,” Bryant wrote Saturday. “Whether it’s good or bad. Jerry has built a great brand, and now it’s time for the team to start winning. It’s time for a real culture shift. I’m fed up with all the nepotism..get someone in there who can win games…”

That post garnered a response from Micah Parsons, current Cowboys linebacker and host of The Edge with Micah Parsons podcast.

“Stuff like this irrates me Dez because you had enough talent and was Probaly one greatest in your time!” Parsons said. “You could have changed the culture brother!! You could have changed the culture !”

That didn’t sit well with Bryant, who responded in kind.

“I had to double back because you really said I could have changed the culture and emphasized that, as if you don’t know,” wrote Bryant. “I was never on the yes-man political ass-kissing shit. I sacrificed myself so a lot of you could do what you do. I’m on some shit that’s way deeper than football. You are really too young to understand. You’ll realize soon you need more people like me who don’t give a fuck for the better of the athletes. The way I talked to Jerry vs the way you talk to Jerry is totally different. Let it sink.”

Saturday evening, after Bryant responded to someone claiming that everyone in the Cowboys front office was a “yes man,” Parsons responded by asking what that had to do with the way players perform on the field.

“Lol what does front office have to do with players actions!,” asked Parsons. “And players be responsible for their actions?”

In response to others, Bryant noted that he respects Parsons and hopes “he accomplishes more than I can imagine,” but “I’m going to speak my truth.”

Whenever I played, I always spoke my mind..telling the team we sucked,” Bryant wrote in a follow-up post on Sunday, “I also reminded them we weren’t the dominant team from the 90s. I never got caught up in false hype and lies. My honesty made me unpopular in certain situations, as I wouldn’t sugarcoat the truth. I freely admitted when someone was better than us…”

That appears to be where things ended. Both men seemed to decline the opportunity to hash out their issues in a podcast interview. And frankly, that’s probably for the best. From the outside, it seems as though they’re talking past one another.

They’re probably more on the same page than it seems, just coming at it from different angles. Bryant might have more perspective on the business of football given his experience while Parsons is in the locker room and trying to win games.

One thing they can definitely agree on is the Cowboys are sitting at home in another January while their divisional rivals are playing for a spot in the Super Bowl. How that gets fixed is anyone’s guess.

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.