Why facing Cowboys' Dak Prescott will be 'painful' for Packers' Micah Parsons

On Tuesday, Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones acknowledged that trading Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers in late August makes this coming Sunday's prime-time game between the clubs more "exciting." 

During a recent chat with Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press, Parsons named one thing he won't be looking forward to when he enters Dallas' AT&T Stadium as a visiting player for the first time. 

Why facing Dak Prescott could be "painful" for Micah Parsons

"It’s going to be painful," Parsons said about possibly sacking friend and Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott on Sunday evening. "That’s my guy. He was always like a good mentor for me. But you know how it is, he always told me if I ever faced him that it’ll be a great matchup, so I’m excited to see what Sunday brings itself." 

Parsons and Prescott were teammates from when Dallas selected the star pass-rusher on the opening night of the 2021 NFL Draft up until the Cowboys acquired two first-round selections and Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark for Parsons back on Aug. 28. As part of that deal, the Packers handed Parsons a four-year, $188M contract that included $136M guaranteed. 

Previous reports indicated that the relationship between Jones and Parsons grew "frosty" up until Parsons went public with a trade request on Aug. 1. On Tuesday, Jones insisted that the summer contract standoff "was nothing personal." 

"I accepted my fate weeks ago when the trade happened," Parsons told Maaddi. "So for me, it’s just all about playing another game and just doing what I do best, and that’s just be a disruptive football player. I think the media and the fans are trying to blow it up to be such a big thing. But I just look at it as just another game at AT&T." 

How Micah Parsons feels about fresh start with Green Bay Packers

Parsons dealt with a lingering back issue throughout the summer, but tallied 1.5 sacks over his first three games with the Packers. Meanwhile, ESPN stats show that Green Bay enters Week 4 of the season ranked first in the league in opponent points scored per game (14.7) and third in total defense with 232.3 yards allowed per contest. 

"Besides the fans, just the teammates, the support staff, I mean they made this transition so great and I’m just extremely honored and blessed to be with such a great group of guys that want to win and that just want to play football and I think we’ve been playing really good football so far, so that helps and I just hope we continue that," Parsons added during his conversation with Maaddi. 

As of Wednesday morning, ESPN BET had the 2-1 Packers as 6.5-point road favorites over the 1-2 Cowboys for the upcoming "Sunday Night Football" showdown that likely will be one of the weekend's most-discussed sporting events.