What a fascinating cross-pollination of sports we have here. It wouldn’t occur to me to thrust a world-class pass-rusher into the dohyĆ to face off against a sumo wrestler, but talk about an entertaining duel of leverage and raw human strength.
Dallas Cowboys All-Pro Micah Parsons is not only one of the most agile humans on the planet who has physical dimensions of 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds. He’s also so explosive and among the most proficient speed-to-power rushers to ever grace the NFL. On a trip to Japan alongside Houston Texans quarterback CJ Stroud â who was present for this excursion â Parsons engaged in the following battle that perhaps goes differently than you’d expect.
Wish I knew the sumo man’s name, height, and weight so we could get the full tale of the tape here. Nevertheless, it’s hilarious that Parsons loses the first round, as the wrestler hits him with the devastating dual gesture combo of “too small” and “cradling the baby” at Stroud’s behest.
After taking an L to start, Parsons says, “Run it back. I’m boutta hit legs every day.” Like any good gridiron tactician would, Parsons makes immediate adjustments on the fly and manages to win the rematch.
Google tells me the average weight of a professional sumo wrestler is between 330 and 350 pounds. Knowing this, I’m even more impressed with our sumo man. Whether he’s north of that average weight range or not, I would’ve thought going into this that Parsons would blow him out of the ring. It’s tighter quarters than what Parsons is used to on a football field, but still, he’s so sudden and powerful for his size. He routinely bull rushes offensive linemen who are much bigger than him. I guess not having as much room to operate has a bigger impact than I anticipated.
B/R has been working a lot with Parsons and Stroud of late, also looping them into their NFL Draft coverage. They played well off each other there and provided some awesome analysis in real time. Both were crestfallen at certain points in the first round: Parsons when the rival Eagles drafted Toledo cornerback Quinyon Mitchell, and Stroud when the 49ers scooped up wide receiever Ricky Pearsall with the 31st pick.
Unfortunately for them, Dallas and Houston had two of the worst drafts in the league in my opinion. Their rookie classes paled in comparison to those of the Eagles and Niners. Still early, so let’s not write any of them off just yet.
By the way, on this international odyssey, the dynamic Lone Star State duo stopped off in Tokyo to toss out the first pitch at a baseball game, too. As you might suspect from an exceptional QB, Stroud threw an absolute strike, while Parsons actually did OK considering he’s tasked with sacking quarterbacks for a living rather than being one.
Much better than 49ers stars Deebo Samuel and Fred Warner fared on their first pitches in San Francisco a while back.
Hopefully we’ll see more Parsons-Stroud content. They’re setting themselves up well for a strong partnership into the future. If the Cowboys can ever get out of their own way in the playoffs and Stroud builds on his historically great rookie campaign, who knows? Maybe they’ll square off in the Super Bowl sooner rather than later.
