LITTLE ROCK — Clemson’s 2-sport star has options
Kyle Parker’s view on his Clemson football future wasn’t that different from many worried Tigers fans.
“I pretty much thought I was gone,” Parker said.
Instead, the Colorado Rockies’ top draft pick was back on campus reconnecting with football teammates he hadn’t worked with since the spring.
Parker acknowledged he wasn’t sure he’d ever throw passes again when the Rockies took him with the 26th pick overall last month. Instead, the two sides couldn’t agree by July 20 - Parker’s deadline to let football Coach Dabo Swinney know his plans - and the first NCAA Division I player to pass for 20 touchdowns and hit 20 home runs in the same year happily returned to Death Valley.
“It’s funny how things work out,” Parker said. “After I made the decision, I felt at peace and felt like it happened for a reason.”
Parker said he and the Rockies will continue talking. Should those negotiations falter, it could set up even more drama for Parker, who’s eligible for the NFL and Major League Baseball drafts in 2011.
“That’s a whole lot of things up in the air,” Parker said.
Come on down
Reggie Hayes of The News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, Ind., thinks a lot of NFL personalities would be a good fit for game shows:
“Peyton Manning: Big Brother 18
“Tom Brady: Let’s Make a Deal
“Ben Roethlisberger: Jeopardy!
“Brett Favre: American, Idle”He’s in the chips
Hometown hero Michael Lorenzo launched a chunk of manure 103 feet to capture the World Championship Buffalo Chip Toss to highlight the Fur Trade Days celebration in Chadron, Neb., this month.
“Although it was a great accomplishment,” writes Brad Dickson in the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, “afterward not a single person shook his hand.” Courting Serena
“Top-ranked Serena Williams hopes to be ready for the U.S.
Open after severely cutting her foot when she stepped on broken glass in a restaurant,” writes Greg Cote of The Miami Herald. “Serena has since received about 100,000 letters, many from well-wishing fans, and the other 95,000 from personal-injury attorneys.” Revved up
“IndyCar driver Helio Castroneves was assessed a penalty for blocking his teammate and stripped of the win at the Honda Edmonton Indy on Sunday. He altered his usual postrace celebration.
Instead of a fence, Castroneves climbed all overan IndyCar security chief,” writes Reggie Hayes of The News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, Ind.
They said it
Comedian Argus Hamilton, on Brett Favre’s annual off-season soap operas becoming a bit too predictable: “The swallows now listen for the sound of Favre’s retirement speech so they’ll know when to return to Capistrano.”
RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com, on reports that Jessica Simpson is dating ex-NFL tight end Eric Johnson: “I don’t know who made the first move, but I’m thinking it’s one pass Johnson should have dropped.”Quote of the day “I’d be surprised if the
SEC moves it out of Hoover.”
Arkansas baseball Coach Dave Van Horn on the possibility that the SEC will move the conference
tournament from Hoover, Ala., after 2011
Sports, Pages 22 on 07/28/2010