You can tell something about a football player by how he interacts with his coaches. Especially on the sidelines during games, when the lights are on.
Do they make eye contact? Do they appear to be actually listening? How do they react when their team is in a tough spot?
Dallas Cowboys rookie linebacker Jaishawn Barham appeared to fail all of those tests in a bizarre video that surfaced of him crying, pouting, and walking away as defensive coordinator Christian Parker tried to speak to him on the sideline during a 28-20 upset loss to the New York Giants in Week 1.
It’s also worth pointing out that it took just 1 game to expose Parker, who already doesn’t seem like an improvement over last year’s fired defensive coordinator, Matt Eberflus. The interaction with Barham doesn’t make him look good, either.
It almost certainly could have been handled after the game, in the locker room, as easily as it could have right there on the spot.
“I saw this clip from WFAA several days ago and couldn’t get it out of my head,” Cowboys fan Jody Dean wrote on X.”I hope Christian Parker succeeds, but this doesn’t feel good at all.”
“Not the end of the world, but not a good clip either,” Cowboys reporter Bobby Belt wrote on his official X account. “And I’m not talking about Christian Parker here … (Barham) is being told he flubbed a responsibility and takes his ball and goes home. It’s game 1 of his career. He doesn’t have the cachet to walk away, especially having missed time. Jerking away from a coach’s correction isn’t admirable, especially as a rookie. I don’t care if he throws some emotion on top of it for effect.”
“How do we feel about this interaction between Christian Parker and Jaishawn Barham?” Sleeper Cowboys wrote on its official X account.
Barham missed a week-and-a-half with a groin injury in August and is expected to take on a much bigger role for the Cowboys in Week 2 against the Washington Commanders, with starter Demarvion Overshown likely out with a hamstring injury.
Jaishawn Barham Looked Lost Against Giants
Barham played like absolute trash against the Giants—enough to make fans wonder whether the rookie and 2026 3rd-round pick (No. 92 overall) should even be playing at this point.
Barham had 6 tackles and 1 TFL against the Giants in 34 defensive snaps.
“Jaishawn Barham is the expected replacement for DeMarvion Overshown at MIKE linebacker and the presumed Green Dot,” Cowboys reporter Clarence Hill Jr. wrote on his official X account. “How does a rookie calling the defense improve the communication issues from Week 1?”
Barham was particularly bad on a 4th-quarter touchdown by Giants running back Tyrone Tracy, in which he appeared to pull up instead of trying to make a play on Tracy as he ran into the end zone.
“This level of effort from Barham is wild,” Cowboys podcaster JA Massey wrote on their official X account. “I think the kid has a ton of potential, but he will never reach it playing like this.”
“Despicable effort by Jaishawn Barham,” Locked on Cowboys podcast host Marcus Mosher wrote on his official X account.
Christian Parker ‘Outcoached’ in Week 1 Loss
The promise of a new defensive coordinator, 6 new defensive starters, and 2 1st-round picks used on defensive players convinced almost everyone that 2026 would be different.
It took just 1 game — a 28-20 loss to the lowly New York Giants in the season opener — to erase an entire offseason’s worth of positive thinking.
Parker, the youngest defensive coordinator in franchise history at 34, came to the Cowboys after spending 2 seasons as the defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.
“It looks like a former secondary coach trying to be a defensive coordinator,” former NFL head coach and ESPN analyst Rex Ryan said on “Get Up” on Monday morning. “Everything from the top down. It’s hilarious … somebody got outcoached.”
Dallas Cowboys Sideline Video Surfaces of Crying Rookie Linebacker