Cowboys’ Micah Parsons calls out Bengals’ Germaine Pratt for piling on Joseph Ossai

The Dallas Cowboys sadly were not a part of Conference Championship Weekend, but players and coaches were definitely tuned in to the action.

Obsessed with football and ever-active on social media, Micah Parsons was chief among them. In fact, the Defensive Player of the Year finalist live-tweeted both games.

Parsons likely rubbed Cowboys fans the wrong way with his message for Eagles tackle Lane Johnson, but he got back in fans’ good graces by showing support for Bengals defender Joseph Ossai after his ill-advised unnecessary roughness penalty on Patrick Mahomes set up the Chiefs game-winning field goal.

Mahomes scrambled for a first down and was a few steps out of bounds before Ossai, giving maximum effort to make a play for his team, recklessly shoved Mahomes full-speed and the players flew into the sideline benches.

Ossai was distraught postgame. CBS cameras caught the rookie hysterical on the sidelines, and most of Twitter rallied behind him in support.

Parsons led that charge on Twitter by calling out Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt, who piled on Ossai’s mistake with an NSFW outburst as Cincinnati made their way to the locker room after the loss.

Cowboys Micah Parsons sticks up for Bengals’ Joseph Ossai, calls out Germaine Pratt.

Parsons is absolutely in the right here. If you watched Ossai on the sidelines postgame — CBS certainly could’ve done a better job in terms of not continuously panning to him sobbing on the sidelines — you understand Ossai needs all the love and support he can get right now. He was visibly distraught, and his Bengals teammates surrounded him in the locker room as he took questions from reporters.

That’s not to say Pratt should be excoriated for a seconds-long outburst. But it’s simply not what Ossai (or the Bengals) needed in that moment.

Pratt surely was’t the only Bengal frustrated with Ossai. And yet, that didn’t stop them from consoling Ossai after the loss. Look no further than Joe Burrow, who acknowledged Cincinnati made other mistakes throughout the game and missed opportunities to build a lead before KC’s final drive.

“There were a lot of plays other than that that could have turned the tide in that game and won us that game,” Burrow said. “So that’s not the only one.”

Head coach Zac Taylor echoed his quarterback.

“We’re not going to make it about one play,” Taylor said postgame. “There were plenty of plays that we left out on the field today that could have put us in a better position. It’s tough. One play. Didn’t come down to that.”

https://twitter.com/NFLonCBS/status/1619909415926382593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1619909415926382593%7Ctwgr%5E47ed3be7bb3aa5a438cb61dd09bc133dbca83543%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportingnews.com%2Fus%2Fnfl%2Fnews%2Fgermaine-pratt-joseph-ossai-penalty-bengals%2Fb0o7ayzcvujaedfmnwax46u3

That’s what you like to see.

While Pratt’s anger is understandable, he should have either internalized it, or simply not have directed it at his hurt teammate. It was an awful teammate moment for the Bengals linebacker, and Parsons was absolutely justified in calling him out.

One of the many reasons Micah is as good as they come.

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