The NFL world was turned upside down last week when Micah Parsons, a bona fide superstar pass-rusher for the Dallas Cowboys, was traded to the Green Bay Packers just days before the 2025–2026 season is set to kickoff.
Perhaps the most shocking news coming from the blockbuster trade stems from claims by Micah Parsons and his agent alleging that Jerry Jones, the owner, president, and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, locked Micah Parsons’s agent, David Mulugheta, out of negotiations leading to an impasse and eventual trade to Green Bay.[1]
It is no secret that Micah Parsons wanted to be a lifelong Cowboy. Parsons himself has expressed his lifelong fandom for the Dallas Cowboys and how meaningful it was for him to fulfil his NFL dreams as a member of the team he grew up supporting.[2]
If Parsons, a generational talent, wanted to be a Dallas Cowboy for the entirety of his career, the question that begs to be asked is: how did things go so wrong? And while there may be several possible answers to that question, perhaps the most obvious one stems from Jerry Jones’s blatant violations of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which requires teams to negotiate contracts with a player and his agent in good faith.
In locking out Parsons’s agent from negotiating on Parsons’s behalf, Jones breached Article 4, Section 8 of the CBA, which states that “any Club, any player, and any player agent or contract advisor engaged in negotiations for a Player Contract (including any Club extending, and any player receiving, a Required Tender) is under an obligation to negotiate in good faith.”[3]
It is abundantly clear that while Parsons wanted to remain a Cowboy, he also wanted his agent to negotiate his contract. This procedure is anything but unusual, as Parsons’s agent stated “99% of the contracts that are done across the NFL are done with player [reps].”[4] So as one could imagine, when Jerry Jones refused to negotiate with Parsons’s agent and would only speak to Parsons himself, he was not exactly acting in good faith.
In addition to the rippling impact the Micah Parsons saga has had on the league, there are massive implications that Jones’s CBA violations carry for the future of league-player relations. With the NFLPA currently in no position to take action against Jones for not negotiating in good faith with Parsons’s agent, this incident sheds light on the lack of enforcement powers and procedures in place to ensure that clubs uphold the provisions of the CBA. This deep-seeded problem could lead to the erosion of player-club trust and place players in vulnerable and unfair negotiating positions.
For a more in depth analysis of the CBA implications, see https://ublawsportsforum.com/2025/09/11/jerry-jones-may-have-tested-cba-rules-while-negotiating-with-micah-parsons/.
[1] Jeffrey Trotta, Micah Parsons’ agent just humiliated Jerry Jones with brutal first comment on trade, The Landry Hat (September 2, 2025)
[2] Rob Demovsky and Todd Archer, Packers’ Micah Parsons wanted to stay with Cowboys, agent says, ESPN (September 2, 2025, 12:02 PM ET)
[3] NFL, Collective Bargaining Agreement, March 15, 2020
[4] Sports Day Staff, David Mulugheta on Micah Parsons trade: ‘I’m not sure how this turned out the way it did’, The Dallas Morning News (September 2, 2025, 11:34 AM ET)
Blake Breidenstein is a third year law student at the University at Buffalo School of Law who has spent much of his law school career studying how the law intertwines with the sports and entertainment industry. Throughout his time in law school, Breidenstein has supported the university's compliance office, working alongside a supervising attorney and staff in ensuring compliance with the ever-changing rules governing collegiate athletics. As a lifelong baseball player, Blake focuses much of his writing on the MLB, although his Buffalo roots occasionally turn his focus towards the Bills and Sabres.
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