Stephen A. Smith had no problem with Micah Parsons speaking his mind about Jayden Daniels.
Parsons drew attention after criticizing Daniels’ late-game decision-making in Washington’s overtime tie with the New York Giants, saying the quarterback’s poor clock management “may have cost Dan Quinn his job.” Daniels was trying to help the Commanders finish off a division game in overtime this past weekend, but with no timeouts left he failed to spike the ball or throw it away late, took a sack, and the game ended 27-27. Washington is now 1-3-1 instead of 2-3.
Parsons went further on his podcast, calling Daniels’ mistake “inexcusable” and saying he “probably cost a lot of people their jobs this weekend.”
Not everyone liked that Parsons inserted himself into another team’s business. But on Wednesday’s “First Take,” Smith pushed back hard on that criticism.
“I am sick and tired of people in the media thinking that athletes don't have a right to speak their mind,” Smith said, adding, “At the end of the day, he ain't a member of the Washington Commanders. He doesn't owe Jayden Daniels anything.”
Smith said Parsons’ perspective made sense because of his connection to Dan Quinn.
“If anything, you know what, he's going to side with Dan Quinn. So it makes perfect sense, but most importantly, he has the credentials to do it. He knows what the hell he's talking about; what he said was absolutely correct, and he said it about a man that he supports, because it's a man who helped make him the player that he is,” Smith said.
Quinn was Dallas’ defensive coordinator from 2021 to 2023 before becoming Washington’s head coach in 2024. Parsons started his NFL career with the Cowboys in 2021 and stayed there until last year, when Dallas traded him to the Green Bay Packers.
On ESPN’s “Get Up,” Mike Greenberg took the opposite view, saying it is “completely inappropriate for a person on one team to be commenting on a person on another team.”
Jeff Saturday, though, brushed it off with a joke: “Micah don't care, he says everything on his podcast.”
Parsons’ résumé explains why his voice carries weight. In Dallas, he won NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, made four Pro Bowls and was a two-time All-Pro.
This season, though, he has been watching from the sideline for Green Bay while he recovers from the season-ending injury he suffered last year. ESPN’s Rob Demovsky reported earlier this week that Parsons will not return for a Week 6 game against the Cowboys, though Matt LaFleur said a return is “getting closer.”
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