“You Couldn’t Beat Them on the Field”: Michael Irvin Calls Out Micah Parsons for Mocking 49ers’ QB and Free Agency Situation

The shoe was always going to drop at some point, but boy, is it dropping hard on the San Francisco 49ers right now. They were able to sign anyone and everyone to massive contracts over the last few years because they had a starting QB making less than $1 million a year on a rookie contract. But with that Brock Purdy extension finally on the horizon, the chickens are coming home to roost, as the Niners have been hemorrhaging talent. And Micah Parsons loves to see it.

After the 49ers were forced to release Leonard Floyd, who recorded 8.5 sacks last year, Parsons commented on the series of unfortunate events for San Fran, tweeting, “No more rookie QB lol, welcome to reality!”

It was what we were all thinking as we saw Deebo Samuel followed out the door by Talanoa Hufanga, Charvarius Ward, Dre Greenlaw, Javon Hargrave, Kyle Juszczyk, and more. But it was weird to hear a rival like Parsons commenting on it. Especially considering his team has its own salary cap issues that are specifically related to him and his upcoming mega-extension.

Parsons’ deal is expected to be in the $35-$40 million range, and the Cowboys have made him wait because of major deals for QB Dak Prescott and WR CeeDee Lamb. So, from that perspective, he definitely knows what he’s talking about, as Cowboys legend Michael Irvin said on FS1 on Thursday,

“It’s fair because it’s reality, and Micah knows that because he probably would have his deal done already if he didn’t have Dak Prescott there.”

After Myles Garrett (four-year, $160 million) and Maxx Crosby (three-year, $106.5 million) signed their massive extensions, Parsons tweeted “It’s my time.” One could surmise from that tweet that either he’s still trying to push the Cowboys to meet his salary demands, or things are moving swimmingly and his extension announcement is imminent. Knowing Jerry Jones, we’re leaning toward the former.

While Irvin understood Parsons’ comments from a financial standpoint, he took issue with them from a football standpoint. The Cowboys-49ers rivalry was the best in sports during the early 1990s: they squared off in three straight NFC Championships from 1992 to 1994, with Irvin’s Cowboys winning 2/3.

However, the 49ers have won the last four meetings between these storied franchises. They beat the Cowboys in the 2021 Wild Card playoffs and the 2022 Divisional playoffs, then demolished them 42-10 during the 2023 regular season—the largest winning margin for the 49ers in the history of the rivalry.

They beat them again last year, even though San Francisco was having a down season. Given that context, Irvin was not a fan of Parsons’ comments.

“But, it’s also a foul, because you couldn’t beat them on the football field. So don’t come here and start throwing things out now, saying ‘aha, ya’ll finally gonna break up because we couldn’t beat ya’ll, thank you.’ So, I’d rather you not say that. So, it’s both for me. It’s fair, but it’s also foul.”

Fans from both sides of the epic Cowboys-49ers rivalry weighed in on this one. Unsurprisingly, the lion’s share of the replies were some sort of variation on “Michael Irvin walks the walk, Micah Parsons talks the talk” with many either begging Parsons to stop with the podcasting or telling him he should quit his day job and talk full time.

The Dallas Cowboys still need to get Micah Parsons re-signed. In the meantime, Jerry Jones has had the most Jerry Jones start to free agency you could imagine. The biggest contract he’s handed out so far is a three-year, $12 million pact to returning safety Markquese Bell.

He has also signed Javonte Williams and Solomon Thomas, two former first-rounders who have fallen on hard times. However, the funniest part of Jones’ comings and goings over the last week was the fact that his first two moves were to re-sign their punter and their kick returner. As always, Jerry’s got his priorities in order.