Andre Parker, linebacker for the Kent State Golden Flashes, is internet-famous today. Pretty impressive after playing just his first game of this college football season.
But he’s probably not enjoying that fame, and more’s the pity because it’s probably going to stick with him for a long time. Late in the first half against Towson, Kent punted and the ball grazed the arm of one of Towson’s wide receivers. Thinking it was a fumble (it wasn’t), Parker picked up the ball and ran 58 yards with it…the wrong way.
Wrong-way runs are insatiable schadenfreude for football fans. One such run is even ironically enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That’s why Andre Parker will probably never live this down. Which isn’t quite fair, because his wasn’t the only error on that play – a couple Towson players chased him down and forced him out of bounds just short of their own goal. The whole thing was moot anyway, since a muffed punt can’t be returned. The ball was dead before Parker picked it up. And to make it even more moot, Kent State won, 41-21.
Nevertheless, he ran the wrong way. He ran the wrong way. How many people have already started calling him Wrong-Way? Probably nearly as many as those who can’t get enough of this video:
