The business of football is certainly cutthroat. Dallas Cowboys defensive stars Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs are learning that the hard way this offseason.
The latter probably learned that lesson in the most brutal manner. Diggs saw his yearly salary reduced by half a million dollars because he — wait for it — didn't meet a certain percentage of time rehabbing at the team facility.
That's one heck of a contract penalty to incur for not spending enough time recovering in a very specific place. You'd think he'd be given a contract escalator for, you know, actually recovering period.
But if you ask Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones, son of owner Jerry, Diggs can cry him a river.
"He certainly paid a price for not being here," Jones told105.3 The Fan, "but we're paying a price, too, because we felt like he might be further along had he done his rehab here. He may differ with that. But had he done his rehab here, we feel strongly that he might be further along. That's in the best interest of the team and the organization that comes with getting a big contract, which he received."
Cowboys brass continues to antagonize their own players for doing what's best for them
This isn't the first time Jones the younger has attacked one of his own players for trying to do what's best for themselves. On Monday, he told reporters that chants by fans demanding the team pay Parsons his worth didn't change how anyone in the front office viewed stalled negotiations.
"It doesn't change anything," he said. "We want to pay Micah, too. He's got to want to be paid, too."
Jones' dad has remained tight-lipped about the Parsons situation so perhaps this is isolated to Stephen being the family bulldog. He wasn't done lecturing and admonishing Diggs in the press either on Tuesday.
"I just think the discipline to come in every day, do the work is there when they're here ... One thing we can do, which we will continue to do is put in every player's contract, especially guys that we pay significant amounts of money, we expect leadership and we expect them to be here. Certainly we addressed that with Diggs," he said.
The Dallas brass is feeling ballsy and they're flaunting it as much as they can to, what, send a message to players that they won't be pushed around? That's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for them.