National Football League

Is Darius Slay appearing on rival Micah Parsons' podcast an issue?

Updated Oct. 2, 2024 1:26 p.m. ET

James Jones is not a fan of Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons and Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Darius Slay doing a podcast episode together. Like, not at all.

On Tuesday's episode of FS1's "The Facility," the co-host and former Green Bay Packers wideout gave his thoughts on the NFC East rivals appearing on "The Edge with Micah Parsons" podcast, teeing off with a very blunt statement: "I hate everything about this."

"The competitive nature of our game is going," Jones told co-hosts Emmanuel Acho, LeSean McCoy and Chase Daniel.

"Everybody's worried about this fame, the stardom and all that. Nobody's worried about the competition no more … There are no rivalries in football."

There may be some inside the Eagles' locker room that agree with Jones. After Slay and Parsons discussed Parsons' on-field beef with Slay's fellow Eagles cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Gardner-Johnson posted a seeming response on his Instagram story, saying, "Damn…"

Slay later said he had to turn off social media notifications for the amount of backlash he received for going on Parsons' podcast but defended his choice to do so, saying he has "way different" leadership skills as a team captain and leaves the "yelling" aspect of team leadership to Jalen Hurts.

"I'm with y'all, man, I want to whip the Cowboys' a** every time," Slay said. "But I do have a life outside of football."

Former Eagles linebacker and current broadcast analyst Seth Joyner also ripped Slay for going on Parsons' podcast, calling it a "cardinal sin" and going as far as implying that the veteran Slay should lose playing time to some of the Eagles' younger defensive backs.

Jones, a Super Bowl XLV champion with the Packers, went on to reminisce about the way rival players used to conduct themselves "back in the day. He shared a couple of stories from older players, including former NFL defensive back-turned-Packers scout Sam Seale, on how he prepared to face a nemesis.

"I always remember the old-school players, all always saying, ‘Man, we were the dog jawn." They were right — they was way more dogs than us. They played way harder! Way more rivalries. Way more competition," Jones said.

"I had a conversation with Sammy Seale. He said, ‘I used to grow my nails out real long, because at the end of the game, the receiver was gonna have scratches all on his neck.'"

Issue with Micah Parsons having Darius Slay as a guest on his podcast? | The Facility

One sign of respect the newer generation of players, in many sports, have popularized is the trading of jerseys following a competitive game.

For Jones, this gesture is just one of the ways in which rivalries no longer exist in the NFL.

"It's just different nowadays, man. We trying to trade jerseys. The backup quarterbacks are trading jerseys, running backs, the punters. There is no rivalries in the league, no more. I know it sounds crazy, but it starts with this little stuff right here," Jones said.

One thing Jones fears about the Parsons/Slay podcast collaboration is that it will serve as a gateway in changing the way competitors view and speak about one another after the fact. In his eyes, that will hurt the competitiveness of the game.

"So you basically telling me, Slay on your podcast, he go out here and pick Dak Prescott off three times and all that," Jones said, "You probably gonna go on your podcast the next week and say, ‘Man, my dog, Slay was on my podcast. He had a big game.'"

"That's crazy to me. I hate everything about it, because the competition and all that, to be honest with you, in our game, I believe it's going down."

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