Management has plenty of options when it comes to keeping labor in line. If you’re reading this and have ever had a job, I’m sure you’ve seen this power exercised in at least one form of fashion at least once in your life. In the NFL, though, front offices have one lever they can pull that isn’t common in most industries: sending your ass to some place you don’t prefer to be.
Post-Brett Favre, because of the winning the franchise has done, the Green Bay Packers haven’t had much of an issue collecting talent. Before Favre, though, Green Bay was known as Siberia, a less-than-cute way to describe our beloved Frozen Tundra.
Don’t believe me? Gil Brandt (RIP), who was the architect for two Super Bowl teams with the Dallas Cowboys, once tweeted: “Back in the day we used to tell players we’d send them to Siberia, aka Green Bay, when they’d ask for a trade.” Even former Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy, who played with Washington from 1977 to 1984, admitted, “When I played…Green Bay was the Siberia of the NFL,” while holding the title as the Packers’ pseudo-owner.
While QB1, Aaron Rodgers famously stated, “I think we can all understand Green Bay isn’t a huge vacation destination. People come here to play with me.” A few years later, he gushed nonstop about all of the activities that there were to do in New York City as a member of the Jets.
Please spare me the comments telling me the benefits of living in Green Bay. I understand what living outside of major metros in the United States is like. For most of the first 26 years of my life, I lived in a county of about 20,000 people in an unincorporated community on a mountain. You’d be preaching to the choir.
The fact of the matter, though, is that the US has about 340 million people, and about half of them live in 15 combined statistical areas, essentially metro areas. According to census data, a little over 75 percent of Americans live in metros larger than Green Bay. So while Brown County may seem plenty populated to someone who grew up in small-town America, like me, others do have differing opinions.
So why bring this up? Because I believe it’s critical in understanding what’s going on with the Micah Parsons rumors.
Based on multiple conversations that I’ve had over the past couple of days, here’s my belief of what is happening and why we’re getting all this Parsons trade buzz — beyond it just being a juicy trade hypothetical involving two popular franchises and a disgruntled All-Pro defender near the start of the regular season.
First of all, Parsons and the Cowboys clearly don’t see eye-to-eye on contract compensation after owner Jerry Jones’ direct-to-player conversations that excluded Parsons’ agent, David Mulugheta, failed to produce a deal. Jones, a multi-billionaire who was humble enough to center himself in a recent Netflix series about the Dallas Cowboys’ Super Bowl runs in the 1990s, did what most powerful people do when they don’t initially get what they want: He flexed his influence.
That’s where this “I’ll send his ass to Siberia if he doesn’t sign this deal” part of the equation comes into play. Hey, it probably worked in the 1990s, where the Cowboys seem to be perpetually living.
Parsons isn’t exactly a homebody. If he’s not in Dubai on vacation, he’s recording a podcast or hanging out at a multi-billion-dollar CEO’s party. He can do these things as a member of the Packers, no doubt, but these actions don’t scream “I would like to live a quiet life as a family man,” which generally attracts people to Green Bay. The cold “small town” is for an acquired taste, on the relative scale of millionaire athletes in their 20s.
Jones identified Green Bay, the stardom that comes with being the face of the Cowboys and the NFL’s trade culture as leverage he could take advantage of. Unfortunately for him, Mulugheta is no pushover.
As a super agent for Athletes First, one of the largest agencies representing NFL players, Mulugheta’s roster includes the likes of Deshaun Watson, who received a fully guaranteed $230 million contract, and stars like Jordan Love, Derek Stingley Jr., Jaycee Horn, Jalen Ramsey and Xavier McKinney. So what does Mulugheta do when an owner threatens to trade a player in a contract dispute? Mulugheta gets a number.
If you want to stick your head in the sand and believe tampering doesn’t happen in the NFL, I envy your belief in people’s willingness to follow rules even when it doesn’t benefit them. First-hand, I’ve overheard discussions that would violate league rules over drinks at the combine. Just this week, Chicago Bears running back Mike Davis admitted that the Bears tampered with him directly while on a podcast. Also, [gestures vaguely at everything happening in college football and the transfer portal].
Rules are only as strong as their enforcement. As long as you have plausible deniability in these cases and don’t leave a paper trail, the NFL can’t hit you with a hammer. This part is heard loud and clear. Remember when quarterback Matthew Stafford and Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay just happened to run into each other in Cabo during a trade sweepstakes? Plausible deniability! No paper trails!
Parsons has been caught breaking the rules before, back during his college recruitment. As a top-five prospect who was initially considering attending Ohio State, he was the subject of recruiting violations that eventually barred the Buckeyes from recruiting him further. The smoking gun in this case? A photo. No paper trails!
In Mulugheta’s case, it helps that he also reps four Packers: Love, McKinney, Kingsley Enagbare and Malik Willis. Enagbare and Willis are in contract seasons, meaning that Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst should be calling Mulugheta anyway. On top of that, the NFL cutdown deadline just passed, a busy period for front office-representation discussions. If Gutekunst and Mulugheta didn’t use some middleman for communication, a call between them wouldn’t even seem out of the ordinary at this time of year. Plausible deniability!
A source familiar with the situation told me on Thursday night that the deal Parsons’ camp believes he can secure from the Packers is around the rumored $45 million per year floating around the internet, give or take, depending on how much money is guaranteed. For now, though, it’s in Mulugheta and Green Bay’s interest to deny any conversations have even happened, beyond a number to use for Parsons in negotiations with the Cowboys. No paper trails!
In a way, Mulugheta getting that number from the Packers turned the gun around on Jones’ threat. You want to send us to Green Bay? Well, we think they’re willing to reset the non-quarterback market. Nothing more has to be said. Both sides know the score here.
And I believe that’s where we stand today and where all these leaking rumors stem from. Jones wanted to use Green Bay as a threat to Parsons, who still ideally wants to be in Dallas, but more than that wants to be compensated at the rate that his agent now knows that he can get from the Packers. Meanwhile, Jones has told Green Bay — and the rest of the league, for that matter — that Parsons isn’t available, which he should continue to do until he’s absolutely sure that he’s ready to pull the trigger. So it’s time for Jones to make a decision: follow through with his threat or pay Parsons his money.
Right now, it benefits both Parsons and Jones, who both ultimately want to get a deal done, to use the Packers to call each other’s bluffs. But time is ticking. Flights out of Dallas and second opinions on a back issue can buy them some time, but that won’t last forever. Parsons is set to be an unrestricted free agent in 2026, but he needs to accrue at least six regular-season games this year so that his contract doesn’t toll and rollover into next year.
Is he willing to sit out games this season and eat the north of $1 million per game lost that comes with it? Can he “rehab” this “back issue” on company time and still get paid in full? We’re on pace to find out.
After multiple conversations with people this week, this is my belief on this situation. Do I think Parsons and Jones ultimately get an extension done in Dallas? I still think it’s highly likely, but I’ve been told that both the Cowboys and Packers have spent more time contemplating, inside their organizations, what a trade would look like in recent days. Officially, there’s no trade offer on the table because, officially, the Cowboys still aren’t taking offers.
The point of this story is to show you how the sausage is made in the NFL, why these rumors are coming from more unconventional sources than the usual insiders and why Green Bay is frequently brought up as a potential landing spot for players in contract disputes. We’re all seeing the smoke, but at this point, no one seems to know for sure if there’s an actual fire burning or if Jones and Mulugheta are just trying to spook each other into a more favorable deal for their side. Make no mistake, though, the Packers are intertwined as a secondary character. At least for now.
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