Star-Telegram Exclusive: Michael Irvin questions unity of Cowboys and their star players

There is no bigger and more connected former Dallas Cowboys player-turned-super fan than Hall-of-Fame receiver Michael Irvin.

He’s as close to Jerry Jones and the Jones family as any former player.

He unabashedly praises and gives pep talks to the Cowboys on his various media ventures.

And he’s a regular on the big screen at AT&T Stadium where he fires up the crowd before games with his passion and intensity.

Like so many Cowboys fans, consider Irvin conflicted about this Cowboys team heading into 2024 season.

Irvin wants to be hopeful, but his faith has been challenged and tested because of a litany of letdowns and unfulfilled expectations since the Cowboys’ last Super Bowl title in 1995. Add in the inexplicable and unconscionable playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers to end last season.

But he is flummoxed by the infighting and lack of family control that has added to the already toxic and frustrating environment surrounding the 2024 team.

Irvin’s ire is specifically directed at quarterback Dak Prescott, receiver CeeDee Lamb and edge rusher Micah Parsons for not policing their family members from taking shots at the team on social media in the aftermath of the loss to Green Bay.

Irvin readily acknowledges that owner Jerry Jones has done little in the offseason to improve the roster.

“They haven’t done anything,” he said.

But he is particularly bothered by the three guys — Prescott, Lamb and Parsons — who are in line for massive contract extensions. Three guys, he says, are the keys to the team.

“The biggest problem is who you’re paying,” Irvin said. “We’re about to take three guys who I hear Dak’s people talking noise in the media all the time, CeeDee’s people talking on social media and Micah Parsons people, talking in the media or Micah himself.

“We got our top three guys that we’re about to give all the money in the world. And their families (are) always running their (expletive mouth) in the media. That is a hard place to be. So what it says to me is you’re about to give money to three guys that are not even together.”

Irvin is speaking about incidents since the the loss the Packers. He’s referring to when Lamb’s mother called out Prescott on Facebook as well the brothers of both Prescott and Parsons shared their feelings about the team, scheme and contracts on social media.

“I need all them together and to tell their family to shut the hell up, while they go do the work,” Irvin said. “You see what I’m saying it and they’re not. We don’t see any of that.

“I’m more worried about that than I am what Jerry Jones Jones is doing in offseason. Because if he makes a commitment to the three of them, I would like to see them three get together and make that same damn commitment. And stop having a family talking. Family that has never ran a route, made a tackle or threw a pass.”

Irvin says it bothers him because he must go on television and “respond to that mess.”

The three-time Super Bowl champion and Hall-of-Famer can’t fathom his family members talking about the team on social media.

And as a person who grew up eating cereal with water because he had 16 other siblings, he wouldn’t have it.

“I would cut their (butts) off,” Irvin said. That is what i am telling them to do. You got all the money. You tell them if they don’t shut up, they will be cut off financially. That’s all you got to do. So it makes you wonder how much of it is coming from them if they they won’t tell them to shut up.”

Irvin is trying to remain positive and excited about the season. But he needs to see more from the inside.

“We got skill. It’s the collective will that I am worried about, Irvin said. “Tough times are going to come and they are going to be looking at one another to get through it. They toughest time came and they’re not together and they fall apart. There is no connectivity. The collective will is missing. So I’m excited but I’m only going to be as much as I see them come together through the process. If they come together, they got a shot to do it. If they don’t they won’t won’t and that’s the reality.”

If they don’t, the other reality is that his could be the end of this Cowboys team as it is currently configured.

The entire coaching staff, including head coach Mike McCarthy, is in the last year of their contracts. Lamb and Prescott’s contract are up in 2024 So are more than 20 other players.

“Why do you want Jerry to stay in this forever? f they can’t come together you will have to make some changes,” Irvin said.

Remember it was Irvin who foreshadowed the departure of receiver Amari Cooper before the 2021 season when he wondered aloud whether Cooper was willing to do whatever it took to stay on the field by taking the COVID-19 vaccine.

Cooper didn’t take the vaccine. He missed a couple of games because of the pandemic and was fined $14,650 by the NFL for violating the COVID-19 protocols for unvaccinated players by attending a Dallas Mavericks game.

Cooper was traded the Cleveland Browns for a fifth-round pick after the season.

Irvin has the ear of Jones.

Stay tuned.