Micah Meets Michael as Cowboys Legend Offers Contract Advice

FRISCO - In my 40 years of covering the NFL, 35 of them working on your Dallas Cowboys, I have never encountered a leader like Michael Irvin.

So when he speaks on the subject, I listen.

And I've urged the Cowboys' modern-day version of "The Playmaker'' - the colorful and outspoken and verbose and gifted Micah Parsons - to do the same.

Is it possible that Micah is finally listening?

The contract situation between the Cowboys and Parsons is heading in the right direction, with the expectation that Micah will become the highest-paid non-quarterback in football, or at least close to it, with roughly a $40 million APY contract maybe spread out over the course of five years. (I'm told that's an idea Micah has expressed to team owner Jerry Jones.)

Jones recently spoke out about Parsons' stated desire to be leader of the Dallas locker room - "It's my time,'' Micah has announced - by tying the money to that statement.

“Micah has to be the player that he wants paid as,” Jones said. “He has to be a tremendous leader for the Dallas Cowboys. He has the skill, the capacity mentally, so for us to justify the kinds of dollars we're talking about, he has to literally lead the way, and he's so substantive that if he's halfway not leading it's glaring. So Micah has to really lead, I think he's committed to do that.''

Jones also coyly made mention of Micah's agent, David Mulughata, who some think the owner has publicly "disrespected.'' (Read more here.)

"The agent won't be within a million miles of him when we're executing on what I'm talking about right here,'' Jones said. "That will be something that we might be visiting about on a week-to-week basis."

Another good visit idea, I've suggested, should happen between Micah and Michael. The Hall of Fame receiver has expressed to me how much he loves almost everything about Parsons, but he does believe that Parsons' outspoken nature threatens to get him in trouble and often creates the appearance of a lack of focus on the things that matter.

Like, Super Bowls.

So I find it notable that Irvin and Parsons apparently hooked up recently. ... maybe at a card show? And exchanged hugs ...

And, I hope, advice.

Parsons, a two-time All-Pro at just 25, wants to be a "Cowboy for Life.'' And he has all the credentials to get there ... and maybe even to someday join Irvin in Canton as a Pro Football Hall of Famer.

But in addition to the numbers, Irvin has urged him to channel his energies - whether that's about podcasting or social media or simply attention-gathering remarks in the press - in a way that demonstrates smart leadership.

Irvin is "pro-Micah,'' and in Michael's own recent social media post, he captioned a hugging photo of the two of them "PAID THE MAN.''