GREEN BAY, Wis. — Micah Parsons spent time Friday remembering and reflecting on his former Dallas Cowboys teammate Marshawn Kneeland, who died Thursday of what authorities said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Parsons, who was traded from the Cowboys to the Packers in August, played one season in Dallas with Kneeland, a second-round draft pick in 2024.
“Marshawn’s a guy who loved his anime, loved his video games like anybody else,” Parsons said. “To me, he always showed me nothing but respect from the moment he came into the locker room. He respected me as a player; he respected me as a person. So, I have nothing but high respect for him. If there’s anything his family needs, I’ll be the first person to help or offer anything I can do to offer a person. I just hope that he finds his peace and his family peace in the situation.”
During his regularly scheduled session with reporters, Parsons spoke at length about Kneeland and mental health as it pertains to professional athletes.
“We’d be fools to act like what we do isn’t enough pressure as it is,” Parsons said. “We live in a pressure job where you’re expected to deliver and you’re expected to play a certain way, and when you don’t, it’s easy to say, ‘Oh, man, it’s so sad,’ but a lot of people are hard on people. ‘You suck. You stink. We hope you die.’ There’s a lot of harsh words and harsh things that get said about people.
“As athletes, most of us see it — some of us don’t — but we choose to wait until somebody passes to realize what we say and what we do, how it can affect people. We don’t all understand what happened to ‘9-4’ in [this] instance, but mental health is important about being there for each other, whether we’re going through hard times or whatever it may be. It’s tough. It’s a hard job. But it’s hard to be a person sometimes. I think sometimes people evade that you are human. They try to go away from that. Sometimes you wish things was different because … obviously, it was Marshawn the person that we wish we could’ve been there for him, not Marshawn the uniform. So, I’m just trying to be there for people more the person side than the football side.”
Since he came to Green Bay, Parsons has spent much of his time away from his family. But he said he was thankful that some of his family members were already in Green Bay this week in advance of Sunday’s game against the Eagles when he received the news about Kneeland.
“We should all just use this time to stay prayed up. Keep praying — praying for your loved ones, praying that people find peace,” Parsons said. “And then also just continue to reach out to our loved ones. It made me reach out to some friends I have back home, former teammates, about how we took for granted the time we have together. Life’s just so short so we should really just start appreciating a little bit more and just loving people right and being purposeful with our intent and how we treat people and how we accept people.”
Cowboys players have been off this week because the team is on its bye, which made Parsons one of the first current or former teammates of Kneeland to speak publicly.
“I have to find a way to embrace my emotions, embrace everything I’m feeling for his family, my former teammates,” Parsons said. “I got former teammates that are devastated. They can’t comprehend it. Losing a teammate is like a brother. This is someone — people don’t realize how much we’re actually together, like time spent. That’s the challenge. Like regardless, the NFL is like a brotherhood. It doesn’t matter who it is. If you’re breaking sweat, breaking blood with someone whether it’s opposite team or same team, it’s a brotherhood. Trying to put that aside is challenging, but we gotta find a way because there’s an expectation come Monday night.”
Parsons said he got word of Kneeland’s death early Thursday morning and found out shortly thereafter that Kneeland died of what authorities said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
According to Frisco (Texas) Police, the department responded to assist the Texas Department of Public Safety with locating a vehicle that evaded troopers during a pursuit that entered the city at approximately 10:39 p.m. local time Wednesday.
DPS troopers found Kneeland’s vehicle crashed on the southbound Dallas Parkway near Warren Parkway. According to the report, Kneeland fled the scene on foot, and officers searched the area with help from K-9 and drone units.
As authorities were looking for Kneeland, a dispatcher told officers that people who knew him had received a group text from the player “saying goodbye. They’re concerned for his welfare,” according to recordings from Broadcastify, which archives public safety radio feeds.
Approximately three hours later, Kneeland was found with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
ESPN’s Todd Archer contributed to this report.
