PHOTO COURTESY OF RON FRIED
San Jose State's Neil Parry (32) has returned to the football field after having his right leg amputated just below mid-calf.
Parry enjoying
spoils of tragedyThe San Jose State special teams
player has not let losing part
of a leg keep him down
He's touched hearts in Michigan and Africa. Requests pour in from schools and hospitals, civic groups and corporations. Even the president wanted to meet him. Then there's the media. This nondescript bit player from a college football team with a 2-5 record has cheerfully completed more than 75 interviews since last month, including appearances on the "Today Show" and "Paula Zahn Now."
Hawaii at San Jose State
When: Saturday, 10 a.m., Hawaii time
Where: Spartan Stadium, San Jose, Calif.
TV: Live, KFVE (Ch. 8)
Radio: Live, KKEA 1420-AM
Line: UH favored by 12
But you won't see him on any Heisman Trophy list or a roster of NCAA stat leaders. You won't even see him play if you don't watch closely.
Still, everyone wants a piece of Neil Parry.
Three years ago, Parry was just another college football player, a second-year freshman special teams player and backup safety for San Jose State. And that was just fine with him.
Then came the play that broke his leg but never his spirit.
On Oct. 14, 2000, a teammate fell on his right leg, snapping the bone and causing a compound fracture. After a life-threatening infection, 25 surgeries including amputation, painful rehab and insurance-company dealings nearly as arduous, Parry finally achieved his goal Sept. 18 against Nevada -- he became just another college football player again.
Sort of.
His position on the Spartans punt return unit is the most anonymous on the field. It doesn't even have a cool name, like gunner, or snapper. It's called L4. And the potential for glory for a guy playing L4 is about what you'd expect from the name: slim and none.
The way San Jose State's defense has been this year, the opponents don't punt often. But two or three times a game, Parry lines up across from the opponent's right guard. He performs one of two functions, depending on what the Spartans are trying to accomplish; he either surges forward to try to block the punt (or more likely, help a teammate do so), or he retreats to a position from where he can effectively run interference for a teammate returning the punt.
Parry, whose right leg was amputated three inches below mid-calf, is the third player known to have played major college football with an artificial leg.
Of course, he wishes none of this ever happened. He would have avoided pain and anguish unimaginable to the rest of us.
And he might be a star player like his brother, Josh, his former Spartans teammate who is now on the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad.
By now, Neil might have become a starting defensive back, or a special teams stud, the guy who makes all the tackles on the kickoffs. In the end, he would've settled for being the best L4 he could be. He sees nothing wrong with anonymity.
"I never really wanted to be the guy everyone's looking at," Parry said. "I want to be able to look back at it that I really did contribute as part of the team. I don't want to look back and say I didn't do anything."
THE MAN in Boise politely tapped San Jose State quarterback Scott Rislov on the shoulder last week.
"He asked if I could introduce his son to Neil," Rislov said. "The boy was about 8 years old and wants to play football next year. He's an amputee.
"When I saw Neil talking to that boy, I realized again what he's doing is a great thing," he said.
Despite the team's record, San Jose State does not lack for interesting interview subjects. Coach Fitz Hill is a dynamic Desert Storm veteran who holds a Ph.D. and happens to be one of only four black head coaches in Division I-A. Rislov is one of the league's best quarterbacks and brightest students. Defensive end Philip Perry is related to William "Refrigerator" Perry and was a preseason All-American.
But Parry is the one everyone wants to talk to.
"Once people found out about his return, we got all kinds of request from everywhere," SJSU sports information director Lawrence Fan said. "People from all over the world who had nothing to do with football found ways to contact us."
An eighth-grader in Michigan sent a copy of his essay, "My American Hero: Neil Parry." Doctors in Palo Alto, Calif., arranged for Parry to meet a young amputee from Sierra Leone, Africa.
"He comes home with stacks of e-mails. He inspires people he'll probably never meet," said Rislov, Parry's roommate. "It's something we can all learn from."
Parents search him out to give pep talks to their children who are about to undergo surgery, including amputations. Parry takes care of them all.
"It's something I feel like I should do. Some kids are in the same situation I am and look at me as a role model. I take that and do the best I can do with it," he said.
NEIL PARRY has four games left in his college football career. Like all players, he has goals.
"I want to get back on the kickoff cover team before the season's over," he said yesterday.
One of his team goals is for the Spartans to enjoy the rest of the ride, as bumpy as it might be -- they might not be favored to win any of the remaining games. San Jose State lost 77-14 at Boise State last Saturday.
"We had a team meeting and aired some things out. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a hard season for all of us, and that I don't have a problem with losing like that. But everybody got to talk and we had a good meeting," Parry said. "I hope the guys can look inside themselves and see it could be worse. Football's a game and it should be fun."
Fun? This is a team that infuriated the coach so much that Hill stripped the players' jerseys of their names.
But the voice of Parry, a public relations major who wants to eventually coach with his brother, is full of sincere optimism and good cheer. Three years of pain and despair and sweat and uncertainty has got him right back to where he started, right back to L4. But he's happy.
"Our team's been knocked around a lot," Rislov said. "But you look at Neil, and he's not giving up and he's been knocked down a lot more than anyone else."
When asked about his future, Parry answers another question simultaneously, perhaps without meaning to. He answers a question about how tragedy often curiously leads to opportunity for those with the character to persevere.
"A lot of things have been presented to me," Neil Parry said.
