Cowboys' Micah Parsons gets honest on why he rebuffed Alabama for Penn State

He added: “The workout conditions were so treacherous. I said there’s no way in hell I can survive up here.”

Parsons was the No. 1 linebacker and No. 5 overall prospect in the 2018 football class, according to an average of the four national recruiting services.

But even he felt challenged by Alabama’s weight training regimen, long a central tenet of Nick Saban’s programs through the years.

“They must’ve thought that was going to get me,” Parsons said. 

“I showed up at 6 a.m. They did 31 [reps]. I said, ‘Oh my God.’ Then they did extra if you left early. I said maybe it was just a hard day. They said come back at 6 [a.m.], we’ll work out again. 

“I said, ‘Dang, they really work over here.’ But then by the weekend it was like, I don’t think I can make it. It ain’t for me. Bama ain’t for everybody.”

Parsons did enough over his two seasons at Penn State to warrant a first-round selection by the Cowboys in 2021, leading his team in tackles before leaving school as a junior.

Over 26 games, Parsons had 192 stops and 6.5 sacks, putting him among the most-coveted pass rushers in his draft class.

Since then, the Cowboys’ edge rusher has made the Pro Bowl four times and is one of just six players in NFL history to compile 50 sacks through his first four years in the league.

Now, Parsons hopes that production will result in a new, long-term contract with Dallas, which just exercised his fifth-year contract option, but experts forecast he should eventually sign the biggest deal ever for a non-quarterback.

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