Last night’s Hall of Fame game pregame show included an update on the Micah Parsons situation in Dallas. Which required me to actually do some reporting. For a change.
Here’s what I found out.
The Cowboys, who love to negotiate directly with players, believe they had a deal with Parsons. He told them he didn’t believe a deal was in place, and that they need to talk to his agent. He told them, we’re told, on several occasions to speak to his agent, David Mulugheta.
To date (or at least as of Thursday), they had not talked to Mulugheta about Parsons’s contract.
The NFL Players Association is the exclusive representative of all players. Agents certified by the NFLPA are the exclusive representatives of the players who hire them.
Parsons has an agent. The Cowboys should not be negotiating directly with Parsons or any other player who has an agent.
Even if the Cowboys were permitted to negotiate directly with players (until the league stops them from doing it, they won’t), a handshake deal reached directly with the player isn’t worth the paper it’s not printed on. And it needs to be quickly printed on paper and signed.
From the Collective Bargaining Agreement: “Any agreement between any player and any Club concerning terms and conditions of employment shall be set forth in writing in a Player Contract as soon as practicable.”
So ignore anything the Cowboys have said about the Parsons negotiations. This process can’t and won’t proceed until the Cowboys call Mulugheta.
Are the Cowboys not calling Mulugheta in the hopes that he’ll call them first? It’s a basic concept of any negotiation. Whoever makes the first move is perceived to have more urgency to do a deal.
Through it all, there’s no deal. Parsons isn’t practicing. And it remains to be seen if/when the Cowboys will pick up the phone and call Parsons’s agent.
Until that happens, it’s impossible to get a deal done.
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