The Dallas Cowboys' Week 1 performance was wildly disappointing, but I'm afraid the plot has been lost.
A sideline exchange between defensive coordinator Christian Parker and rookie linebacker Jaishawn Barham has blown up on social media. Parker can be seen consoling a visibly frustrated Barham, who appeared to be crying. He clearly didn't want to hear what Parker had to say in the moment, and he eventually walked away. You can watch the clip here.
The exchange has triggered some loaded takes about Parker and Barham.
All of a sudden, Barham is being labeled overly emotional and uncoachable. Parker, meanwhile, supposedly can't get through to his players. The clip has driven a wedge between Cowboys fans, but the entire discourse has been blown out of proportion. This is anything but a controversy.
Jaishawn Barham being criticized for caring is ridiculous
Let's start with Barham, whose emotion is nothing out of the ordinary on a football sideline.
Players cussing at coaches. Coaches cussing at players. Players cussing at players. Players cussing at themselves. Teammates getting into shoving matches. Gatorade coolers getting knocked over. Helmets hitting 25 mph on the radar gun from players spiking them off the bench. Players crying. Whether it's high school, college, or the NFL, these are normal sights on a football sideline.
Barham taking heat for crying on the sideline is about as ridiculous as the interception Dak Prescott threw near the end of the first half against the Giants. It means he cares. He was frustrated. He was emotional. His defense was getting pummeled by a division rival, and he took it personally.
Since when did showing that kind of investment and emotion become a character flaw? He wasn't crying because he was sad Dallas was losing. Come on, people. He was crying because he felt responsible. This means something to him. He hates losing.
CeeDee Lamb can relate to Barham's frustration (h/t Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com).
“As a player, in what we do for a living, when you put your all into this game and then you still kind of feel like you're coming up short as far as doing your job, or you miss an assignment, or something just not falling your way, you get OD tough on yourself," Lamb said. "You feel what I'm saying?"
Will Barham's emotions make him difficult to coach at times? Definitely. There will be moments when he needs to reel himself in, listen to his coaches, and funnel that frustration more productively.
Jaishawn Barham wants to be great. That's all this is
Walking away from Parker wasn't ideal, but one heated exchange doesn't make him uncoachable. We'd even argue there was some maturity in Barham walking away rather than risk saying something he'd regret, but that's neither here nor there.
That same emotion is also part of what could make Barham a very good player for the Cowboys. He plays with an edge. He takes mistakes personally. Maybe too personally, but he's a rookie. He clearly cares about what happens when he's on the field.
The challenge isn't getting Barham to care less. It's teaching him how to harness all of that emotion so it works for him instead of against him.
The Cowboys do not have a Jaishawn Barham problem.
And, assuming the defense doesn't repeat its Week 1 performance 16 more times this season, they certainly don't have a Christian Parker problem.
Christian Parker did everything right in viral Jaishawn Barham clip
If the last 24 hours or so have proven anything, it's that Christian Parker is apparently the first coach to ever "get into it" with a player on the sideline. In reality, you couldn't begin to count how many coaches have dealt with an emotional player in the heat of a game.
Jimmy Johnson. Bill Parcells. Bill Belichick. Nick Saban. Andy Reid. All of them have encountered some version of what Parker did with Barham. And you better believe they all struggled to get through to their player in the moment.
It's almost impressive that Parker's actions have somehow been spun into a negative. He was being a coach. He saw one of his players struggling emotionally and went over to settle him down.
Maybe he was trying to get Barham's head back in the game. Maybe he was reminding him that they'd need him the following week. Whatever Parker said, he saw a young player having a difficult moment and tried to be there for him.
Once again, CeeDee Lamb brought perspective:
“And having CP, I saw it, just checking in on him, checking on his mental, making sure he's straight. Obviously, everybody got to take a minute to gather their thoughts before anything is even said, but for him to even check on him, knowing that he was going through a tough time at that moment, like, I mean, it's good to see. That's what we need. ..."
There are plenty of things worth criticizing after the Cowboys' Week 1 loss. A rookie wearing his emotions on his sleeve and his defensive coordinator trying to pick him up shouldn't be anywhere near the list.
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