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Rob Demovsky
“We are building relationships,” Parsons said about competing with his new companions before Sunday's return to Dallas.
Green Bay, Wisconsin – when Micah Parsons He visited the headquarters of the Green Bay Packers for the first time in Lambeau Field, his eyes were illuminated by noticing something hanging on the walls near the weight room, the interior practical field and even in the team's meeting room: basketball rings.
While the De Bowl defensive wing was an American football player in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, it was also a low stature post that fought for rebounds and baskets. And he loved it. But deep down, he always wanted to be a shooter.
I hope the rookie defensive wing Collin Oliver I knew what I was getting.
“It's a shooter,” said Oliver. “A direct shooter.”
Oliver also learned something else: Parsons takes his Horse games very seriously. The same goes for the ping-pong (ask him Tucker strength), Bowling (ask him Josh Jacobs) and everything Parsons does inside and outside the field.
“If you don't like winning, you're here,” said Oliver. “You are in the wrong place.”
Horse games are played in what Packers call the CRIC, abbreviation for “Center for Conditioning, Rehabilitation and Instruction”. It is next to the locker rooms of the Lambeau Field and serves as a mini field of covered practices for shorter tours or training when the team does not cross the Oneida street to reach its complete training facilities in Don Hutson Center.
Parsons has another acronym for this: Atm.
“I took a couple of per diem for that,” said Parsons.
That includes Oliver's money.
“I said constantly: 'Co, don't let anyone else play,” said Parsons. “You always come to me.”
Oliver, who said he stopped playing basketball in high school, but loves to throw, said he has not yet defeated Parsons.
“I have to recover it,” said Oliver. “Not yet, but it's on your way. It has taken too much money, so I have to recover my funds a bit.”
Before Parsons arrived through an exchange with the Dallas Cowboys on August 28, almost everyone here knew their talent in the American football field. How not? For four years in Dallas, Parsons was an outstanding character, getting more than ten catches in each of his four seasons, winning the recognition of the Pro Bowl in each.
They have seen a lot of the same until now. In the face of Sunday's game against his former team in Dallas (8:20 PM ET, NBC), Parsons has 1.5 captures, occupies the first place in the NFL in victories by pressing the quarterback (17) and is tied in the first place in pressures to the quarterback (14), according to ESPN Research.
However, few knew Parsons' competitive spirit.
The Packers coach, Matt Lafleur, at least had an idea.
The day Parsons arrived in Green Bay after the transfer, Lafleur recalled his only previous interaction with him. It was at the Pro Bowl after the 2021 season. Lafleur and his coaching staff trained in the game, and Parsons was a rookie who played his first of four consecutive appearances in the Pro Bowl.
That was the last year that they played a match at the Pro Bowl, although it had ceased to be competitive several years before, which finally caused the format to change to what is now known as the Pro Bowl games: a series of competitions that culminate with a Flag Football match.
“Most players seemed to be doing what they had to do,” Lafleur recalled. “Except one. I was trying to destroy and win.
“This player is the maximum competitor, and whatever you are facing, he will want to win. And I don't think he apologizes much about that, which is very exciting as a coach to have such a guy, and I think that elevates all those around him.”
In the locker room, after the victory of week 2 over the Washington Commanders, they asked Parsons about Kraft's great night with six receptions for 124 yards and a touchdown. Before Parsons could congratulate Kraft, he made sure that everyone who heard him knew something else.
“Tuck, brother, ask, I'm going 2-0 against him in Ping-Pong,” said Parsons. “He wants to challenge me, but it's not ready.”
Kraft listened and shouted from the other side of the costumes: “Micah brings his own palette to work.”
And there was a bowling night with Jacobs and the former practical team receiver Mecole Hardman.
“In the second game, I threw 258 yards,” Parsons said. “Nothing bad, nothing wrong.” I took Josh Jacobs, Mecole already a couple of boys like that, so I'm happy that we are competing, spending time out of the building and building relationships. “
Jacobs confirmed the 258 Party of Parsons, but hastened to point out that he was only one.
“We played three games,” Jacobs said. “All I know is that I didn't leave money down. I left money up.”
When Lafleur installed the basketball rings in the facilities shortly after being hired as coach of the Packers in 2019, he did it with a double intention: to break the monotony of the daily routine of meeting-training-length-reader-requisite during a NFL season, but also encourage another way of competition. It is something that, he said, he learned from Dan Quinn when Lafleur was part of his team with the Atlanta Falcons.
However, at that time I had no idea that over time those hoops would be used by perhaps the most competitive person in the NFL.
“Wow! Winning is all for me,” Parsons acknowledged. “I do not think you find someone more competitive in the team or anywhere else in the NFL in regard to what we do. We could go out to throw baskets. We could go out to throw a baseball, to see who throws stronger … We could run 40 yard races. I will wait for you to get tired if you are faster than me.
“I don't think you find someone more competitive.”
