A player has much more leverage if he doesn’t show up for training camp than if he shows up and leaves.
With Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons being asked specifically about the possibility of leaving the team on Tuesday — and with Parsons not flatly ruling it out — it makes sense to explain what would happen.
The rule appears in the NFL’s Constitution and Bylaws of the National Football League. Section 17.15.
If a player leaves the team, during training camp or the regular season, he has five days to return. If he doesn’t, the team can place the player on its reserve list as a retired player. And if that happens under those specific circumstances, the player cannot play again that year. For any team.
His contract gets tolled. Everything freezes in place. It’s a no-win situation for the player.
While it also hurts the team to not have the player, it’s the ultimate nuclear option — and it’s a power the team doesn’t have if the player fails to report for camp.
A player who fails to report can show up as late as the Tuesday after Week 10. A player who shows up and leaves for more than five days can find himself shut down until the next year.
Would the Cowboys do that to Parsons? It would be stupid. Still, he’d have a lot more to lose than they would, since his pay for 2025 would plummet from $24 million to nothing.
So, yes, if he’s even considering the possibility of leaving, he shouldn’t have shown up. And if he leaves, he needs to understand the financial consequences of staying away for more than five days.