Micah Parsons changes jersey number to No. 1, says he’s antsy to prove Packers right after 'probably the hardest four months'
Micah Parsons was ready for the moment Friday night in Green Bay. The ex-Dallas Cowboys pass rusher wore an appropriately yellow beanie for his introductory news conference, called back to his days of youth sports playing for the Harrisburg Packers in Pennsylvania, foreshadowed a potential Lambeau Leap and talked about his appreciation for the Packers organization and its storied history that even he noted is rooted in public ownership.
Parsons tastefully made it known how happy he is to be moving on from his previous situation, a contract standoff with billionaire Cowboys owner and showman Jerry Jones, who doubles as the team's general manager.
Parsons, however, was much more transparent about how his back injury and contract dispute have made the first half of 2025 more than just challenging.
"These last four months have been probably the hardest four months of my life," Parsons said.
He added: "I have not [not] played football this long since I was in seventh grade and I was overweight."
Back then, Parsons said he missed a whole season while navigating a growth spurt and missing weigh-ins for middle school football.
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Being away from the game again for extended time - this time as a 26-year-old, four-time Pro Bowl sack artist - was eating at Parsons.
He made sure his agent, David Mulugheta, knew exactly how he was feeling when he called him early Thursday afternoon.
"I was like, 'Bro, you need to hurry up and get me on the field. You need to get me moving. I don't really like this waiting game,'" Parsons said, recalling his phone conversation with Mulugheta.
Less than five hours later, Mulugheta called Parsons back and told him a deal was almost done. Soon enough, Parsons was off to Green Bay, with the Cowboys receiving two first-round picks and three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark in return.
"Y'all don't understand how relieved I felt," Parsons told reporters Friday in Green Bay.
'Physically, I'm great'Although Parsons reported to Cowboys training camp at the end of July, he still hasn't practiced this summer. He was dealing with a back injury, but Dallas head coach Brian Schottenheimer told reporters Tuesday that, "at this time," Parsons is cleared medically to practice.
That said, NFL Network's Jane Slater reported Wednesday, after Parsons' MRI came back clean earlier in the week, that he was getting a second opinion on his back.
Naturally, Parsons was asked about his status Friday.
"Physically, I'm great," Parsons said. "I think I can contribute a lot. I'm going to team up with the doctors and create a plan. We already talked about how we can ramp me up and get me in a flow where they feel comfortable and I feel comfortable.
"My plan is to be here. They didn't give up what they gave up for me to sit on the sidelines."
.@MicahhParsons11 announces he'll wear No. 1 with the @Packerspic.twitter.com/xaShA7RlRp
- NFL (@NFL) August 30, 2025
Parsons also said he plans on wearing a No. 1 jersey with the Packers. He previously wore No. 11 with the Cowboys, with whom he piled up 52.5 sacks, 256 total tackles, 112 quarterback hits and nine forced fumbles in 63 regular-season games over his first four seasons in the league.
The Central Pennsylvania native rose to stardom at Penn State, where he also wore No. 11, became a consensus All-American, won the Big Ten Linebacker of the Year award and played his way into hearing his name called by the Cowboys, who selected him with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2021 draft.
According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Parsons will be the first Packers player to wear No. 1 since Curly Lambeau, who helped found the Packers and then played and coached for the team throughout the first half of the 20th century.
An opportunity for a different kind of rematchParsons said Friday that he didn't have a say in where he went. He considers himself lucky that he ended up in Green Bay.
"I was pretty much geared up ready to play them, looking for revenge," Parsons said. "But now I'm on the other side of adding to this rich history and being able to play with these guys and suit up and play."
The Packers knocked the Cowboys out the playoffs during the 2023 season. Parsons notched a career-high 14 sacks that year and was third in NFL AP Defensive Player of the Year voting. His 12-win Dallas squad won the NFC East but lost in the wild-card round to an upstart Packers team led by then-first-year starting quarterback Jordan Love.
Earlier this year, Love lightheartedly tried to recruit Parsons to the Packers during a live episode of Parsons' podcast, "The Edge." When asked about that moment Friday, Parsons said he didn't think it was ever really a serious conversation because he never thought he'd be traded.
Not only is Parsons linking up with Love in Green Bay, but he's also reunited with one of his Penn State teammates, left tackle Rasheed Walker. A seventh-round pick in the 2022 draft, Walker is approaching his third year as a Packers starter.
Parsons said he talked to Walker about the move from Dallas to Green Bay, and that exchange brought Parsons solace.
"It's like Penn State. It's like home. This is like a brotherhood. It's safe," Parsons said, alluding to the insight Walker provided after the trade. "You focus on ball, and we keep everything the right thing. It kind of gave me comfort, and it kind of gave me a better decision like, 'OK, this is the place where I feel like I can take my next step and continue to have a great legacy here.'"
That legacy will be on center stage when he takes a return trip to Arlington to face the Cowboys for "Sunday Night Football" in Week 4. Parsons knows what lies ahead, but he's taking it one game at a time.
"Well, obviously Dallas got to do what they got to do to get to Week 4," Parsons said. "We got to do what we got to do. I see no easy games. I see the Lions first on Sunday, what I got to try to get ready for. Then I see the Commanders on Thursday night. So I see two games that got some of the most elite offenses in the NFL before we get to Dallas, which I know is another elite offense after seeing them all in camp with [wide receivers] CeeDee [Lamb] and [George] Pickens.
Parsons isn't naive about the expectations"So I got to focus on [those ones] first. But when it come to Week 4, we'll be ready and we're going to prepare the same way we had the previous weeks."
Parsons agreed to a four-year, $188 million deal with the Packers, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, who reported that the star edge rusher will receive $136 million in guaranteed money.
Parsons will enter the 2025 season with a $47 million average salary, making him the new highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.
That's historic, and Jerry Jones believes the value Parsons carried on the trade market will be as well, comparing Thursday's trade with the Packers to the Herschel Walker trade that set the stage for the Cowboys' Super Bowl dynasty in the 1990s.
It's a deal that will be evaluated and then reevaluated and then reevaluated again as the years go on. Parsons has already heard and seen the comparisons between him and the late Reggie White, a Pro Football Hall of Fame pass rusher who came from the NFC East and helped the Packers win a Super Bowl.
"I'm not even going to lie. There is a lot of expectations, and I'd be a fool to think that there isn't expectations or there isn't pressure in the position that I'm stepping into," Parsons said Friday.
"But then again, that's a blessing in itself. That means that [Green Bay] believed in me that much."
Parsons thanked Cowboys fans again in his Packers news conference. He also mentioned how he's going to miss his now-former teammates in Dallas, namely close friend and cornerback Trevon Diggs.
But he kept coming back to how much he missed playing football. Parsons compared it to watching your older brother play Xbox all day and not being able to touch the controller.
"I told Rasheed. I said, 'Bro, just go ahead and get ready for your best practice week cause I ain't put my hands on somebody in so long,'" Parsons said, referencing his conversation with the Packers' first-team left tackle.
"I'm just so ready to get out there. Y'all don't even understand. It's miserable when you missing the thing that you love."