Micah Parsons eviscerates former Cowboys teammates amid facility tour backlash

Bye weeks are supposed to serve as a reset for NFL teams. But the Dallas Cowboys are not your ordinary team.

Between the speculation surrounding Mike McCarthy's job security, Jones having a meltdown on local radio and threatening to fire the station's hosts, Derrick Henry continuing to make Dallas' front office look foolish for not signing him and finally, Amari Cooper getting traded for much more than what the Cowboys got for him three years ago, it was an exhausting bye week.

Well, more negativity publicity has arrived via an ESPN article that unearthed players' disturbance over tours of the Cowboys team facility.

A number of former Cowboys spoke out against the team's culture - including some former fan favorites - and compared it to that of their new teams. The article made waves on social media and eventually caught the eye of Micah Parsons.

Parsons did not take kindly to it and called out his ex-teammates.

Micah Parsons blasts former Cowboys teammates over facility tour backlash

Parsons followed up with another post: "Some people just ain’t meant for the lights and that’s okay!!!" Parsons posted to X.

The list of former Cowboys featured in the article include running back Tony Pollard, now with the Titans, defensive lineman Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler, now with the Commanders, and cornerback Kelvin Joseph, now with the Colts.

Not every player is wired the same. It clearly doesn't bother Parsons that facility tours take place during practice, weightlifting or other mid-week preparations. Cowboys fans would love if most players shared Parsons' mindset, but everybody is entitled to their opinion.

It is easy to see both sides of the argument.

Navigating fans in the comfort of your team's facility is not a common workplace environment for professional athletes. While you can argue whether players should allow it to become a distraction, there is something to be said about the impact a normal week of preparation can have when it comes time to compete.

On the flip side, what impact do stadium tours actually have on winning? The answer is none. Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis, in his eighth season with the team, echoed Parsons' message, albeit in greater detail.

"It's Jerry's world. That's not our job to go out there and tell Jerry what to do with his organization," Lewis said, via Cowboys reporter Ed Werder. "Our job is to go out there and win games, regardless of if you see [tours] as a distraction, like the media or anybody else. We got to go do our job regardless of the circumstances. So we can't look at it like that. ... He made a multibillion dollar organization like this. It's not going to stop, so get used to it."

That is why Cowboys fans love Lewis.

Whether players agree with how Jerry Jones runs the organization, it's not going to change. Mid-week tours of AT&T Stadium ultimately have zero impact on winning and zero influence on how players perform on Sunday.

And if it does, that says more about the player than anything, regardless of how uncommon it is.

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