Micah Parsons spent time in the offseason working out with Myles Garrett and he did that for a very specific reason.
He wants to be the best in the game.
That is what his trainer, Lance Deane, said Thursday in the wake of the former Harrisburg High and Penn State star being traded from the Dallas Cowboys to the Green Bay Packers. Parsons was given a four-year, $188 million deal as part of the trade, making him the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history.
And Deane, who has been working as Parsons personal trainer since his Nittany Lions days, wanted to make a couple of points.
The first: Parsons might want to be the best player in the game, but Deane believes he already is the best player in the game.
The second: This all is much bigger than Micah Parsons.
Parsons grew up on Jefferson Street in Harrisburg in a house that had crumbling walls and a neighbor that had a rodent problem. He overcame every hurdle — with the help of a strong mother — Sharese Parsons really is something else — and a supportive family ‚— to make it.
And for folks in Harrisburg to be able to see one of their own do that … well, you really can’t put a price on that.
“I’m excited for him,” Deane said. “This is something he has earned. He and I have talked about it, you know, you are the highest-paid player in the world and you come from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
“It’s a full-circle moment for him and his family,” Deane continued. “It really is nothing less than something he has earned. He’s the best player in the world.”
Parsons, 26, headed into the offseason having already done enough across his first four seasons to be considered a lock to land the most lucrative contract for a defensive player in league history. But Deane said Parsons did not rest on his previous accomplishments. The money was all but in the bag, but he continued to work as hard as he ever has. And he added wrinkles, like linking up with Garrett, the Cleveland Browns star defensvie end, to get training in.
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Micah Parsons works out in Harrisburg
“Second to none,” Deane said. “Micah is the hardest working person that I have ever been around. And one thing that amazes me about him is how he has grown as a leader.”
It should be noted that Parsons can have his pick of trainers in the world, but he has stuck with Deane, whose day job is that of athletic director at Susquehanna Township High in Harrisburg. He has gotten results, obviously, and he has taken Deane along for that ride, too. And Deane said when he flew out for workouts this summer, Parsons was rarely alone.
“He made sure his (Cowboys) teammates were there to challenge them,” Deane said. “It showed a lot, I thought, of him wanting to bring others in and help them find that success.
“It’s been his best offseason,” Deane added. “He has been invested more, and one of the reasons he wanted to be around those elite guys was so that he could learn from them and try to steal from them and work with them. He’s just somebody that has never been content.
“He is always looking for that plus-one to get better.”
And that, Deane said, is what Green Bay just added to the roster. A guy who has never logged less than 12 sacks in a season across his first four years who has an intense desire to continue to build.
“The Packers are getting the best player in the NFL,” Deane said. “Nothing less than that. They are getting someone who learns and works extremely hard, someone that is going to be a leader and someone that wants to win. He’s the most competitive person I know. He is going to help the Packers get over the hump and win the Super Bowl.”
All of that is big.
But Thursday’s Micah Parsons news meant just a little bit more in Harrisburg. That has never been lost on Parsons. It is why he keeps coming home, driving down Jefferson Street right up to Harrisburg High each summer to host a free camp for all of the kids in the city. It is why he invited high school and college players from the city to meet him at Reservoir Park to workout alongside him, under Deane’s guidance, for free just last month.
And Deane said seeing that success and having it be so tangible is, again, something you just can’t put a dollar amount where Parsons comes from.
“Hopefully, this just gives everyone a sense of hope,” Deane said. “If our guy can make it … why can’t I? Because this guy did it. He made it from our hometown, and hopefully someone sees it and says, ‘I can be the next guy.’
“This serves up that sense of hope for the people in Harrisburg. Our guy made it.”
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