"I might get a fine for this conference," Micah Parsons told reporters.
If that's what it takes, so be it. The Green Bay Packers are quickly learning a harsh lesson Parsons has experienced his entire NFL career. Opposing offensive linemen can't stop him, so they resort to any tactic. Holding, grabbing his facemask, tackling him to the ground — slow him down by any means necessary.
And it often goes unnoticed by the refs. Matt LaFleur is frustrated by it, and so is Parsons. Reporters fired questions his way during his latest media scrum, and he needed no invitation. Parsons spoke for almost 15 minutes and gave a brutally honest assessment of his frustrations.
"You can tell how they call the games," said Parsons. "They don't call offsides for offense but they'll call it on defense. They won't call offensive pass interference but they'll call defensive pass interference immediately. We know what they're trying to do. They want to load the points up so fans can be happy."
"The refs will say, 'I know that's a hold.' But like, what, you're not going to call it? Come on. I'm over it. I'm just going to have to keep going and push through it."
Micah Parsons doesn't hold back while airing frustrations over refs' lack of holding calls
To be clear, Parsons isn't talking about the ticky-tack, 50-50 calls — decisions that feel borderline and leave you wishing the refs would just let the game go on. Oh no. Far from it. We're talking about some of the most blatant, hard-to-believe no-calls you'll ever see.
It's happened all season.
"It's not the ones that are close that I'm worried about," Parsons said. "It's the ones where I'm getting pulled or someone's at my face mask. What's the point of having hands-to-the-face if you're not going to call it?"
Various video compilations have surfaced around the internet, and it happens all the time. On one play last week, Parsons was held and tackled to the ground. But as Parsons notes, the refs are quick to jump on any defensive player for a pass-interference or holding call. It doesn't work both ways.
Defenders already have a tough time in an increasingly offensive-minded league. Everything is built around scoring points, but with Parsons, it has reached a ridiculous level of stacking the odds against him.
And it doesn't just give him a disadvantage in the rules of the game, but it also increases the injury risk for defensive linemen.
"It's an offensive league. I think a lot of the rules are b------t," said Parsons. "They hurt Van Ness last week. What are we doing? You're going to say it's about protecting the players, then protect all players. Don't just protect one side of the ball. I don't mind guys chipping from the outside, but running backs want to come and sneak players while we're engaged with offensive linemen. That's complete b------t."
Parsons is still dominating every time he steps on the field. Per Pro Football Focus, the All-Pro has generated an incredible 29 pressures in five games, despite being on a snap count early in the season. He has 12 more pressures than Rashan Gary, who has the second-most on the team.
While Parsons' sack numbers aren't there yet, he's still impacting the game. His elite PFF pass-rush grade of 92.8 ranks second in the NFL.
So, where do we go from here?
In all likelihood, nowhere. Matt LaFleur said he plans to speak to the officials before Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals, but there's little else he can do. It happened to Parsons in Dallas, to the point where the Cowboys had to submit evidence to the league. It should never come to that.
Parsons put it best: "If your teams holds, they should get better tackles. Better guards. Don't blame that on us."