Dez Bryant and Roc Nation have entered the chat.
After Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said that Bryant and Roc Nation Sports owner Jay-Z are the reason why he doesn’t like to deal with agents in players’ contract discussions, both parties fired back. The 82-year-old told reporters that Jay-Z quit taking his calls after the two spent hours negotiating a new contract for Bryant in 2015. In a statement, Roc Nation called Jones’ recollection of events from 10 years ago both “false” and “comical.”
Bryant, who played for Dallas from 2010-17, warned Jones that he’d share his side of the story. “I don’t think it’s smart to mention my name,” Bryant wrote on social media. “We can have story time if that’s what we’re doing.”
Jones’ comments come on the heels of Cowboys star Micah Parsons claiming that Jones avoided speaking to his agent during ongoing extension negotiations this offseason, which ultimately led to his fiery trade request on Aug. 1.
“I no longer want to be here,” Parsons wrote on social media. “I no longer want to be held to close-door negotiations without my agent present. I no longer want shots taken at me for getting injured while laying it on the line for the organization, our fans and my teammates. I no longer want narratives created and spread to the media about me.”
Parsons is seemingly referring to Jones’ comments in mid-July about the 26-year-old missing a handful of games because of a high ankle sprain last season — the first time Parsons had dealt with an injury in his professional career.
Parsons went on to put the team on blast in his 1,000-plus-word statement, calling out the Jones family for how they’ve handled contract negotiations and revealing that they haven’t “had a single conversation” with his agent.
“Not one demand has been made by my agent about money, years or anything else,” Parsons wrote. “Still, I stayed quiet, but again, after repeated shots at myself and all the narratives, I have made a tough decision. I no longer want to play for the Dallas Cowboys. My trade request has been submitted to Stephen Jones personally.”
Bryant was quick to publicly react to Parsons’ statement. “I respect that you are standing on business because a lot of us have failed due to lack of knowledge,” Bryant said. “What you are doing is much bigger than the game of football.”
Bryant went on to say that Jones’ actions are “disrespectful” and that “the love-hate relationship is real” between him and the Cowboys franchise.
“As much as I love the Cowboys, this is exactly why it’s hard to see them reach their goals,” Bryant wrote on July 31. “… I pray that any athlete reading this does what’s best for them. … It’s important to understand your influence and power and never let anyone or any organization take it away from you. … You’ve got the greatest franchise in sports history. [Use] it to your advantage in a positive way. … [The] fans are loving the players more than the actual team.”
It remains unclear what exactly transpired between Bryant, Jay-Z and the Cowboys organization all those years ago, and it will likely remain that way seeing as Jay-Z shouldn’t have been involved in direct contract negotiations for a player because he’s not licensed to do so by the NFL Players Association, as first pointed out by Pro Football Talk.
As for Parsons, only time will tell what’s to come of his future in Dallas.
Previously, quarterback Dak Prescott participated in training camp last year before getting a new contract before the start of the season that made him the NFL’s highest-paid player. Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb held out of camp before receiving a new $136 million, four-year contract with $100 million guaranteed last August. Those protracted dealings came ahead of a 7-10 season that marked the end of Mike McCarthy’s five-year run as head coach.
“Just pay the man what you owe [him],” Lamb wrote on social media on Aug. 1.
A first-round draft pick in 2021, Parsons has at least 12.0 sacks in each of his four seasons with the Cowboys and 52.5 for his career. He had 12.0 sacks and 12 tackles for loss in 13 games last season. Parsons is going into the fifth and final year of his rookie contract and could be franchise tagged in 2026 without a contract extension.
Jones brushed aside concerns over the weekend, insisting that the standoff with Parsons is no different from past situations he has dealt with. “Don’t lose any sleep over it,” Jones said. “That’s the one thing I would say to our fans.”
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