What part of the Hall of Fame does Dallas Cowboys star Micah Parsons want to be in?
Sitting on the NFL Network stage of the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was asked who on his current team might one day rate Hall of Fame consideration.
Jones said it’s defensive star Micah Parsons, who is the team’s best player and is coming off All-Pro campaigns in his first two seasons in the league.
Parsons didn’t blink when asked to respond to Jones’ comment. His goal is to not just make the Hall of Fame but be ranked in the upper room with the best of the best in the Hall of Fame in a special wing that Deion Sanders has talked about.
Just like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Michael Jordan are in conversation for the greatest basketball players of all time, he wants his name included in those conversations when it comes to football.
“I just don’t think I want to make the Hall of Fame, I want to be known as one of the greatest Hall of Famers,” Parsons said. “There’s categories to everything: there’s good, there’s great and there’s perfect. You talking about the greatest basketball players of all time, there’s only really three names that come and a bunch of them are in the NBA Hall of Fame. When you’re talking about me, I just don’t want to be mentioned in the Hall of Fame. Yeah, that’s a great accolade. I want to be one of the greatest in the Hall of Fame.”
When Parsons thinks of the greats of the greats in the NFL, he listed Lawrence Taylor, Jerry Rice, Sanders and Michael Strahan. All are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“They all had a legendary seasons,” Parsons said. “They all had this legendary thing about them, broken records. Really just set the tone of what it meant to be a prime-time defender, set the tone. Whether it was prime time as an offensive player, or prime time defensive player. They really just set the tone for what it meant to be great, and how to separate themselves from others. They all had their little own swag.
“Everyone got something about them and what you’re really talking about the greatest, you think of those guys like how dominant and a force they were.”
Parsons believes he is on his way to achieving that status. He says his all-around game as a pass rusher, run stopping and covering running backs out of the backfield is second to none. There are things he can do that even Taylor, considered the greatest linebacker in the history of the game, couldn’t do.
”Yeah, I definitely think I’m a position-less player,” Parsons said. “That’s why I’d say the comparisons to me don’t really make sense, bro. Like, I don’t think LT can guard a Chase Edmonds or a Dalvin Cook or somebody like that. But I think I can. And I don’t think he can guard Saquon Barkley.”
Parsons considered former Tampa Buccaneers Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks as a linebacker who could do both. Brooks is his favorite linebacker of all time and is woefully underrated in his eyes.
No one can argue Parsons’ potential as a future Hall of Famer and one of the greats of all time.
His first two seasons in the league have certainly put him on that path.
What’s even scarier is that Parsons is motivated to be even better in Year 3.
He has given his fellow Cowboys fits through the first two week of training camp and has been making eight-time Pro Bowl left tackle Tyron Smith look helpless at times.
Smith intimidated Parsons as a rookie in 2021. Not anymore.
“I just want people to know Tyron is still great,” Parsons said. “So when I was going against Tyron my rookie year, that was one of the first left tackles that I went up against. I was like, ‘Man, this guy is hard to beat.’ I didn’t understand what I was doing, how I wanted to set him up and I learned from him. I got him figured out. I practiced against a guy for three years now, and I know how Tyron wants to get me. I know exactly how he wants to touch me, I know how he’s going to set me up. I don’t want people to feel like that’s him. That’s just also me getting better. I’m just learning how to pass rush now.”
Parsons has learned how to beat Smith. But he is also much improved as a player and as a pass rusher.
He didn’t know what he was doing as a rookie when he set a franchise record with 13 sacks.
“Now, I know what I’m doing. I think that’s going to be a real big difference,” Parsons said.
He is also more comfortable playing a bunch of different positions on the Cowboys defense. And it’s showing up every day in practice as he is wrecking things for the offense, which he credits to his offseason training when he spent time in Austin getting stronger, adding bulk and being more violent with his hands.
He can’t wait until the season starts.
“Man, just challenged myself, pushed myself to the limit, preparing my mental space of where I want to be on Sunday, Monday and Thursday,” Parsons said of his practice dominance. “That’s my mindset. I think every day is a game ... Yeah I’m ready to go right now. I think my training coming in here, man, I was already getting ready. My mindset this year was like, I want to be so far ahead of everybody, time can’t come … I’m already going to be in midseason form, getting ready to dominate. So that’s kind of like the mindset of heading into this year.”
This story was originally published August 5, 2023 at 6:22 PM.
