Former Wolves meet in the NFL
NEWBERRY – For both Ron Parker and Brandon Bostick, the reality of being on a National Football League roster still feels more like a dream at times.
Did Parker, now a starting strong safety with the Kansas City Chiefs, ever expect that his career could reach this point? “Not really,” he stated after a recent practice. “When I was at Newberry, I couldn’t see into the future to where I am now, I guess because I was in a small school.”
But now the future is here, and not just for Parker. Standing on the opposite sideline this Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium was Bostick, Parker’s former teammate at Newberry, now a tight end for the New York Jets.
“Man, [seeing another Newberry player on the sideline], it’s a dream come true,” Bostick remarked Wednesday. “I always looked up to him. I mean, I’m sure he didn’t know. I never told him that. He went into the League a year before I did, so I always looked up to him and always wanted to be what he was, and he made it so I felt like I could.”
“It’s a great feeling seeing somebody who I went to school with, another one of my brothers, in the league on the same field as me,” Parker said.
The game represented just the second-ever regular season meeting of former Newberry players, and second opportunity for two Wolves to participate in a customary postgame jersey swap making its way to the NFL from international soccer. Parker has been a part of both meetings of former Wolves; his Chiefs fell 16-10 to Edmond Robinson’s Minnesota Vikings in Kansas City last October.
While Parker and his Kansas City teammates didn’t fare well against the Vikings, his Chiefs defense put on a clinic Sunday against the Jets. The Chiefs forced eight turnovers, the most giveaways for the Jets since 1976, in a dominant 24-3 victory. Parker tallied three tackles and a pass breakup in the contest.
“It was a great, great feeling to be a part of that defense,” he remarked. “It was something special.”
Special to be a part of that performance, of course. But to be sixth-year veteran with over 200 career tackles, seven sacks, six interceptions, and 31 passes defended in his career, who’s started all but one game for the Chiefs in the last three season, is undeniably special as well. Particularly for someone coming from a school with under 1,100 students. What’s his secret?
“Just being consistent,” he stated simply. “You’ve got to be consistent about everything you do as a player, as a person, on and off the field. Just be consistent and you’ll succeed in the NFL.”
The emergence of Newberry as a hotbed of NFL prospects, with three players currently on active rosters and two more who were waived in the final week of the 2016 preseason, offers proof that talent is always recognizable, even in stadiums filled with 4,000 people rather than 80,000.
“I think it’s a good thing, coming out of Newberry and showing that we’ve got talent out here,” said Parker. “It’s showing that we’re a small school, but there are some big fishes in the sea. If you can swim, they’ll come see you and get you.”
“I don’t think it matters where you come from,” Bostick added. “There’s a lot of small school guys that make it to the NFL. You’re there in a really small school where no one knows you. So you just have to work harder than everyone else and I think the NFL could definitely happen for you.”
