FRISCO, Texas (AP) — New Dallas defensive coordinator Christian Parker didn't have to wait long for a tense sideline exchange to end up on social media, or for the duty to try to explain a poor performance that has become all too familiar for fans of the Cowboys.
Parker got his first chance to call defensive plays as a 34-year-old because the Cowboys fired Matt Eberflus after his only season when he oversaw one of the worst defenses in the NFL, and in franchise history.
Following an offseason and training camp filled with optimism over a young coach and a revamped roster, the Cowboys looked frighteningly similar to 2025 in a 28-20 loss to the New York Giants in the opener.
The defense wasn't very good in the first half, and even worse in the second, when the Giants scored touchdowns on eight-minute drives on their first two possessions and ran out the clock on the third. Dallas scored TDs the only two times it got the ball after the break.
Somewhere amid all that, Parker was caught on camera in a sideline exchange with rookie linebacker Jaishawn Barham, who always has an intense look and in this case started barking back at Parker from the bench before getting up and storming off.
It's safe to say it was a rough debut for both — Barham as an NFL player and Parker as an NFL play-caller.
“He was a little frustrated with himself and frustrated with our side of the ball,” Parker said. “But I don’t think anybody in our building has any doubt of what he’s going to do coming real soon. We don’t have any reservations about his mentality. We welcome that passion. Have to channel it better. And that’s something that young players have to go through. It’s a natural progression. We have a lot of confidence in Jaishawn.”
Coach Brian Schottenheimer, in his second season in charge after 25 years as an NFL assistant, isn't losing confidence in Parker after one week. Dallas is home against Washington in a matchup of 0-1 teams Sunday.
“I have no question Christian Parker is the right guy for this job,” Schottenheimer said. “He will learn from this, just like our young players are going to learn from this. We’re going to play our young players this weekend too, and they’re going to play better and Christian’s going to call a better game this week and feel better about it.”
The Cowboys added two veteran pass rushers in Rashan Gary and Von Miller, and Barham was among the reasons for optimism when the third-round pick emerged as a potential starter during the preseason.
Caleb Downs was the 12th overall pick as a safety, and edge rusher Malachi Lawrence was the other first-rounder for Dallas at No. 23.
There was reason to believe the run defense could be stout anchored by defensive tackles Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark.
Instead, the Cowboys didn't offer much resistance against Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo, and the secondary left huge gaps in coverage the same way Dallas did a season ago.
Parker is aware of all those things, and was reserved and measured the first time he had to face the questions that come with such a dismal showing.
“It’s one poor performance,” Parker said. “It’s one loss that does not equal two. I think we’re not trying to make excuses for anything. We’re not trying to act like it didn’t happen. We got to look in the mirror, we got to be accountable for what we did wrong and what we did right, correct it and then move on to the next opponent because it can’t be a hangover and it can’t linger.”
New York Giants running back Devin Singletary, right, scores a touchdown in front of Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jaishawn Barham during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Syrian military official convicted of torturing prisoners during the rule of former President Bashar Assad was sentenced Thursday to 60 years in a U.S. prison.
A jury in March found Samir Ousman Alsheikh guilty if one count of conspiracy to commit torture and three counts of torture while in charge of Syria's infamous Adra Prison from roughly 2005 to 2008.
“The conduct was heinous, unimaginably cruel, and almost unspeakably violent and brutal,” a federal judge in Los Angeles said before announcing the sentence.
Defense attorneys said they will appeal the sentence.
Human rights groups and United Nations officials have accused the Syrian government of widespread abuses in its detention facilities, including torture and arbitrary detention of thousands of people, in many cases without informing their families.
Prosecutors said Alsheikh, seeking to quash political dissent, sent certain prisoners to a wing of Adra where they were held in small isolation cells and tortured.
Alsheikh came to the U.S. in 2020 and applied for citizenship, but prosecutors say he concealed his involvement in torture. Federal authorities detained him at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2024.
In a three-hour hearing, the judge heard statements of support from Alsheikh’s son and daughter. There were also recorded statements from former inmates who described the brutality they suffered and witnessed at the prison.
During the trial, three victims recounted beatings while suspended from pipes on the ceiling and the use of a device that folded their bodies in half at the waist. One person testified that Alsheikh stomped on the device with his foot, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Defendant knew that what he was doing was wrong,” DOJ prosecutors said in a sentencing memo filed this month. “Nonetheless he ordered and participated in the torture of his victims because he had the power to do so and because he thought he would never be held accountable.”
The memo included statements from several victims, one of whom, Nidal Shikhani, said he can “still hear the screams of others begging for mercy, repeating, ‘Leave me, leave me.’”
Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Hernan D. Vera for a minimum sentence of 80 years. Alsheikh's attorneys, Nina Marino and Collin Cate, called for a five-year sentence, noting that he is 74 years old and has “significant medical and cognitive conditions.” They also said he was willing to be deported to Syria, where a new government has sought to hold Assad-era security officials accountable.
“Whatever moral weight this case carries in the broader arc of history — however much the world, or the victims, or the public might wish the sentence to ‘send a message’ — that desire cannot be the foundation of a just sentence,” Marino and Cate wrote in their Sept. 3 memo.
Jurors also convicted Alsheikh in March of lying to U.S. immigration authorities and fraudulently obtaining a green card and attempting to naturalize as a U.S. citizen.
Assad was ousted in a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024, bringing a 14-year civil war to an end, but the country has continued to suffer from sporadic outbreaks of violence.
In March 2025, armed groups aligned with Assad ambushed the new government’s security forces on Syria’s coast. A government counteroffensive then spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks and the massacre of hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs.
On Thursday, three people were sentenced in the Syrian city of Aleppo in connection with the violence. Two members of the pro-Assad groups were sentenced to death and life in prison, while a member of the security forces who took part in the revenge attacks was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Thanawala reported from Atlanta.
The exterior of the federal courthouse is seen March 27, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)
