Is the Cowboys' standoff with Parsons a circus by design?

There's a theory that Jerry Jones likes getting into contract stalemates with his best players because it keeps attention on the Dallas Cowboys.

If so, he must be thrilled with how this one is going.

I have my doubts about that theory. Does it make any material difference to the Cowboys as a business if they fill more airtime on ESPN's morning chat shows? Are they selling more tickets because people are reading about the latest twists in the standoff with edge rusher Micah Parsons?

No and no. And yet: It's as good an explanation as any for how things have gotten to this point.

Parsons, whose contract with the Cowboys expires after the coming season, was widely expected to get a lucrative extension this summer. That makes sense for all parties: The player gets security in case of an injury, and the team locks up its best defensive player instead of risking a free-agent departure that gets the team nothing in return.

The wrinkle came when Jones, in his trademark shoot-from-the-hip ownership style, had a conversation with Parsons earlier in the offseason - apparently about unrelated matters - and sprang contract discussions on him. Parsons' agent, David Mulugheta, was not present.

Jones later said publicly that he and Parsons had basically worked out the terms of a new deal - which definitely came as news to Mulugheta - and the owner reportedly wants the player to agree to the terms that were already negotiated, even though the Parsons camp absolutely does not consider the informal chat to have been a contract negotiation. Especially when the agent wasn't even in the room.

If Jones wants to pay Parsons - and he's said he was willing to give him the most guaranteed money of any player, non-quarterback division, in the NFL - why doesn't he just negotiate the deal through Parsons' agent like a normal person? Instead, he seems hung up on the fact that he did an end-around on Mulugheta by dealing with Parsons directly, a move that is itself prohibited under the league's collective bargaining agreement. Parsons, frustrated by the way Jones has painted him as uncooperative, asked to be traded.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys seem to be going out of their way to poison their relationship with Parsons. Stephen Jones, son of Jerry, said that Parsons "has to want to get paid," implying that the impasse is entirely the player's fault, and Jerry went one further last week in telling an interviewer that Parsons' camp told him to stick his generous contract offer "up his ass."

Perhaps some Cowboys fans are swayed by this version of events: Jerry Jones just wants to give Parsons a big, fat contract, and the jerk refuses to even consider taking it. But there is an obvious solution to the stalemate: Call Mulugheta, tell him the contract talk between Jones and Parsons can be ignored, and open discussions between team and agent, just like any other contract process.

But Jones would rather air his side of things publicly, as he always does, saying last week that the situation with Parsons was a "mama-daddy deal": as in when a child doesn't get what he wants from one parent, then gets approval from the other parent and uses that as leverage with the first parent. A classic childhood tactic indeed. But Jones doesn't seem to realize that he is the child in this analogy. He didn't want to deal with Mulugheta, so he got the contract agreement he wanted from Parsons and then went to the agent and told him the details were already sorted. There aren't two parties for Parsons to play off each other: There's just Jerry.

The latest wrinkle came in the Cowboys' final preseason game Saturday night, when Parsons, on the sideline but in street clothes, looked to be having a quick nap on a training table.

Whether he was asleep is impossible to say, but Parsons said he would never "disrespect teammates who are putting their lives on the line" (which might be laying it on a little thick). The Cowboys said they will deal with the matter internally, whatever that means. Parsons hasn't played at all in the preseason, and it's unclear if he has any intention of suiting up for the season opener next week without movement on a contract. Some kind of team-ordered discipline would presumably just make things worse.

Jones has, of course, been here before. Many times. He eventually gets contracts done with star players, even if it costs him more than it would have if he had done the deal earlier.

But those recent disputes, as with receiver CeeDee Lamb or quarterback Dak Prescott, never became so bitter. Given opportunities to cool the rhetoric, Jones has only cranked it up again.

Jerry does love to make headlines. Now we'll find out how much all that chatter will cost him.

Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.