Eric Parker chose to carve his own path.
And in the end it’s hard to see how Parker, who just completed his freshman season with the University of Tennessee track and field team, didn’t get the last laugh.
The youngest of three brothers, he had seen his brother T.J. rush for a combined 2,433 yards his final two seasons at Cleveland High School. His father, Reggie, won a pair of football state championships during the Blue Raiders’ 54-game win streak from 1993-96.
So it should have come as no surprise that a coach approached the youngest Parker about playing that sport for the school. But he had no interest, choosing instead to focus on track, which led the coach to tell him, “There’s no way you can run track in college without playing football.”
Track, though, wasn’t his first love. Parker remembers going into his dad’s bedroom and asking if he could try out for the baseball team in sixth grade.