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‘Now we become legends’: Micah Parsons on cusp of postseason glory under watchful eyes of Cowboys icons

The lion is always hungry. And even as the table is being set for the biggest meal yet of his young career, Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons was feeding his appetite at a lunchtime film-crunching session with former Dallas sackmaster DeMarcus Ware.

Then the transcendent rookie sat down for a revealing long-form conversation with a group of ex-NFL stars to talk about the learning curve of his first year in the pros, how his rapid rise and pursuit of individual accolades has affected his play, and what reaching the postseason really means to him.

He also got an eye-opening confirmation of exactly where the bar for him has been set, after another Dallas legend, Hall of Fame wide receiver and three-time Super Bowl champ Michael Irvin, joined the chat to share a text he sent to the Cowboys brass shortly after Parsons joined the club.

Early in the week, Parsons and Ware met up at a Metroplex restaurant and broke down tape while breaking bread over a two-hour lunch. Ware appeared in eight postseason games over his 12-year career, including a Super Bowl win with Denver.

“He helped me [with] how to prepare the best so that way, I keep my head low and I can stay focused on the things I need to focus on,” Parsons said.

“He said, ‘You’re explosive off the line of scrimmage, but you’ve got to learn how to jump off the line and get a good jump on the count,'” Parsons relayed to reporters the day after his lunch meeting with Ware. “He was telling me about what to look for when you’re watching [tape]: all the tendency things, things that I kind of knew, but he kind of went into more detail on things.”

The 22-year-old has already established himself as a quick study this season. He wasted no time in putting Ware’s lessons to work in a film session with Cowboys linebackers coach George Edwards just hours later.

“I was watching film with George this morning; I kind of had a head start on it, and I was like, ‘Hey, you see that right there with the receiver when they run the toss?’ or whatever. He was like, ‘Oh yeah, you are getting it.’ I was like, ‘Yeah George, I’m paying more attention than you think, brother.'”

Parsons is definitely catching on, to just about everything that comes with playing defense in the NFL. He was named a first-team All-Pro this week, the only rookie so honored.

In a new episode of The Pivot podcast with ex-NFLers Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor, and Channing Crowder, Parsons spoke at length about his willingness to set aside pride and ego, despite being a highly-sought-after first-round draft pick signed in the spring with the express intent of turning around a porous and soft Dallas defense.

Parsons made it clear from Day One with Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn that he was open to serious schooling, telling Quinn, “If I’m not doing something right, tell me.”

What he perhaps didn’t expect was to still be singled out after a season that has made Parsons practically a shoo-in for the league’s Defensive Rookie of the Year Award.

“So earlier this week,” Parsons said of Quinn, “he had three loafs [of mine] on film in practice.” I was like, ‘Practice.’ He was like, ‘Hey, you’re one of our better players. I need you locked in. This is not the example I need you to put on going into this 49ers game. You get me?’ I said, ‘I got you, Q.'”

The individual awards got into the rookie’s head at times this season. There were moments on the field when Parsons admittedly found himself thinking about adding to his stat totals.

“Sometimes you ride that borderline,” the Penn State product said on the podcast. “I found myself doing that toward the end. I was like, ‘I’ve got to have a good game if I want to keep sustaining what I’m doing.’ You never want to put yourself in a predicament where you’re choosing yourself over the team.”

Now Parsons has helped his team reach the tournament as the NFC’s No. 3 seed. And even though he was watching from home with COVID as the Cowboys closed out the 2021 regular season with a rout in a Philadelphia, the rookie immediately grasped the importance of the moment suddenly at hand.

“I texted Tre [cornerback Trevon Diggs] right after that Eagles game. I said, ‘We just became stars, and that’s cool. But now we become legends.’ This is where legends are made… Look at [NBA superstar] Reggie Miller, those type of guys. Great players, but they never got these, know what I mean?”

He was pointing to his ring finger as he said it. Parsons clearly understands what it’s all about.

And if it took Cowboys fans a little while to take notice of how special Parsons is, it took one of the greatest Cowboys of them all significantly less time.

The iconic Irvin surprised Parsons during the podcast. Over the course of the wide-ranging conversation, Irvin shared with the group a message he had sent to Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones. It came just a week after the team made Parsons the 12th overall pick, having to go to Plan C after many had felt the organization had been targeting- and missed out on- cornerbacks Patrick Surtain II or Jaycee Horn.

Irvin asked Clark to read the text out loud:

“‘Mark this as a blessing in disguise,'” Clark read. “‘I love the corners like Surtain, but I think- especially on defense- attitude and connectivity is most important. I know the attitudes, the personalities of the corners, and none–‘ none is capitalized, y’all; all big letters- ‘none of them have what Micah brings. Mark these words, buddy, you will see. There’s something special about this kid’s spirit that reminds me of me. Now we just have to make sure we keep the right people around him so he makes the right decision. Love you boss, and keep up the great work.’ That was May 7th. He didn’t write that today.”

So far, Irvin seems to have been spot-on in what he wrote about Parsons.

And now, with the help of two Cowboys legends, Parsons looks to write his own extended fairytale ending to what has already been a storybook season.

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