Green Bay Packers’ Micah Parsons paid an emotional tribute to former Dallas Cowboys team-mate Marshawn Kneeland following his death earlier this week.
Kneeland was 24 at the time of his passing.
Parsons, who played alongside Kneeland during the 2024-25 NFL season with the Cowboys before being traded to the Packers for this season, spoke in detail about his former colleague ahead of this weekend’s NFL slate.
“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.”
Kneeland’s death has raised questions about how professional sportspeople are cared for with regards to their mental health.
Parsons believes that the extra pressures associated with competing in a top-level sports league like the NFL make it difficult for athletes, and he admits it can be hard to turn off some of the more visceral comments on social media.
Marshawn Kneeland passed away aged 24 earlier this week
“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. 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 realise 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 were 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.”
Parsons: The NFL is a brotherhood; people don’t realise how much we are together
Micah Parsons played for the Cowboys and was Kneeland’s team-mate
Cowboys players have been away because the team is on its bye week, so Parsons has been one of the first people connected with the organisation – even just as a former player – to speak publicly since receiving the news about Kneeland.
Parsons admits that looking after himself and former team-mates has been his first priority following the tragedy.
“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.
“I have to find a way to embrace my emotions, embrace everything I’m feeling for his family, my former team-mates. I’ve got former team-mates that are devastated. They can’t comprehend it. Losing a teammate is like [losing] a brother. This is someone – people don’t realise 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.”
Kneeland was a second-round pick out of Western Michigan at the 2024 NFL Draft and scored his first NFL touchdown on Monday night.
The Cowboys are currently on a bye week and are due to return to action at the Las Vegas Raiders in Monday Night Football on November 17 in Week 11.
If you are affected by these issues or want to talk, please contact the Samaritans on the free helpline 116 123, or visit the website www.samaritans.org
