The relationship between the Cowboys and linebacker Micah Parsons went sideways due in part to the insistence of Jones to negotiate directly with the player — and to treat his agent like a bystander.
Even though the strategy blew up in Jerry’s face, he fully intends to keep doing it. Regardless of whether it violates the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and the NFL Players Association.
He thinks it doesn’t.
“There is no violation,” Jones declared during a Tuesday morning appearance on 105.3 The Fan. “Period. I have all the authority in the world, and the player has all the authority in the world, to negotiate directly with me. There is no equivocation. There.”
There may be no equivocation, but there’s also no accuracy. The NFLPA is the exclusive representative of all players generally, and the NFLPA delegates its authority to agents whom the NFLPA certifies.
Unless the player doesn’t have an agent, the team must negotiate with the agent. The problem is that the CBA is toothless when it comes to punching the team in the face for violating that provision of the labor deal. The first offense results in no punishment. The second offense, and every offense thereafter, subjects the team to a fine of (for 2025) $62,000. With no progressive discipline.
“Can I work through an agent or an attorney?” Jones said. “An attorney can do the very same thing. Do it all the time. It usually ends up a little of the both on a pretty high profile player, but there is no violation. I have every right — can you imagine if you didn’t have the right when you’re the one that decides whether to trade him or not? How could you not have the right?”
You don’t have the right because the CBA says you don’t have the right. It’s no different than the owners bypassing the NFLPA to negotiate a new labor deal with the players directly.
It’s clear that Jerry doesn’t care, largely because the CBA relegates the penalty to a parking ticket.
“And so the point is that there’s no equivocation here and been no rule violation, and certainly there’s, you know, I’m trying to give a third-party affirmation here, but I will 100 times [pay] the fine or the penalty,” Jones said. “I will 100 times if I were ever assessed on anything I did with Michael relative to the communication or non-communication with the agent, I’ll 100 times and give it to the Salvation Army.”
He’ll do it because the amount of the punishment is peanuts in comparison to the money he can save by getting the player to negotiate his own deal. The Cowboys believed that Micah had agreed to a deal that pays $40.5 million per year in new money. Micah eventually signed a deal worth at least $46.5 million per year in new money.
That’s $6 million per year that he could have saved, right there. He’d need to be fined nearly 100 times PER YEAR to offset the cash he would have saved, if Micah and his agent, David Mulugheta, hadn’t worked the board to put Jerry in checkmate. (Given that he repeatedly used the phrase “100 times,” there’s a good chance he did the math, too.)
Last week, NFLPA interim executive director David White seemed to suggest that the union had told Jerry to “knock it off.” It’s clear that he doesn’t intend to.
The question now becomes what will the union do about this? Will they let Jerry continue to disrespect the process, simply because he can? To repeatedly misstate and misinterpret the obligation of all teams to negotiate with the agents, not with the players?
Ultimately, Jerry doesn’t care. Nothing about the process forces him to care. He’ll do what he wants, and if he’s ever fined he’ll treat it as a cost of doing business the way he damn well pleases.
