Green Bay Packers icon Micah Parsons is putting long-term health ahead of utopian storylines. Ahead of his high-profile matchup against his former team, the Dallas Cowboys, the All-Pro edge rusher made it abundantly clear that he is not chasing any kind of Hollywood-level revenge. He is already recovering from a major torn ACL and meniscus surgery.

 He confessed that while he would shoot up if it was the Super Bowl, his real battle right now is the kinetic chain of his body to protect his overall future.  For all the NFL fans, it is definitely refreshing to see this patient in a league that often is impatient and rushes greatness back into the field too soon.

His health is more important than anything else to him, even his rivalry with Jerry Jones’ club. That one takes a back seat because he needs to think about his health first, which is completely fair. He said, as per NFL.com, "I don’t care about the team I left or the team they think I want my revenge against. I don’t need revenge. I just need two healthy knees to do what I love to do.” 

“So many people wanted me to be back for that game to make the game bigger than what it was,” he said. “It's just another Sunday Night Football game against two good teams. It's not about me. I think that probably let people down. 'Oh, Micah, he's gonna wanna be back for the Dallas game.' No, I'm in that phase of life where I just wanna be healthy again. That's it.” 

Parsons is concentrating on becoming healthy right now more than anything else. He said that he values being fully healthy at the back end of the season over being semi-fit just to return early because that can damage his career and harm the team as well. 

When did the ACL injury happen to Parsons? 

Parsons suffered an ACL injury on December 14th with the Packers leading the Broncos in Denver. They unfortunately lost that game and the next six over two seasons but now have two consecutive wins and right now are at 3-2 entering Sunday night's matchup with Parsons' old team, the Dallas Cowboys. 

Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said on September 1st  that the Packers had “a pretty good idea”  about Parsons and that he would be “pretty close” to returning very soon after his four-game stay on the physically unable to perform or PUP list was up. However, Parsons remains on the sidelines for now. “We were all hopeful,” LaFleur said Monday. “He’s a physical specimen. He’s a creature of nature, for sure, and sometimes you’ve gotta make sure that your body is (in sync). … You don’t want one leg to be that much stronger than the other leg is what I’m getting at.” 

The Packers’ next three games are in Detroit, at home against the Carolina Panthers on a Thursday night, and at the New England Patriots. If the Packers open Parsons’ 21-day window next week, he could return in Week 9 against the Patriots. 

Written by

Tanushree Bhowmick

Edited by

Tanushree Bhowmick