Sunday, September 21, 2003
Neil Parry of San Jose State has an artificial leg.
By DARREN SABEDRA
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- As he lay on the field at San Jose State's Spartan Stadium, bleeding from a compound fracture of his lower right leg, Neil Parry vowed he would play football again.
He did not suspect that he would lose part of the leg to amputation nine days later, or that more than 20 surgeries would follow over the next three years, or that he'd need to learn not only how to run again but also how to run through webs of red tape.
But to Parry none of that would matter.
Tonight, he will fulfill the promise he made to himself Oct. 14, 2000.
Wearing a prosthesis specially designed for high levels of activity, Parry will line up at left tackle on the punt return team in San Jose State's game against Nevada. He will be the third player known to have competed in major college football with an artificial leg.
"If Neil Parry doesn't motivate you to go out and give it your all," said his teammate, defensive tackle Larnell Ransom, "I don't know what to do."
National attention
Parry's story is drawing national attention. He will appear on NBC's "Today Show" Friday morning and CNN's "Paula Zahn Now" Friday night. The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Sports Illustrated requested credentials to tonight's game.
"I've been saying from Day One, I don't care who is there," said Parry, 23, a fifth-year senior. "If it's just my teammates, I couldn't care less.
"I just want to be part of the team. Anything inside the white lines is better than being in a hospital bed."
He was running down-field, covering a kickoff in the third quarter of a game against Texas-El Paso, when a teammate was knocked down and rolled into Parry's leg.
Parry heard the bones snap -- the fibula and tibia breaking the skin -- but his first thought was that the Spartans had a chance to play in a bowl game and he would miss it.
Football family
Parry comes from a football family. His father, Nick, coaches high school football in Sonora, Calif. His brother, Josh, was a linebacker for San Jose State the year Neil got hurt and is a member of the Philadelphia Eagles' practice squad. Neil hopes to get into coaching after graduating next spring.
"We all know -- his brother, he and I -- that once you step on the football field, it could be your last," said Nick. "Every player knows that in the back of their mind, but they don't dwell on it."
The Parrys were forced to dwell on it when, within days of the injury, a life-threatening infection developed in Neil's leg. He was transferred from O'Connor Hospital to Stanford Medical Center for specialized treatment.
Amputation
Two days later, the leg was amputated 3 inches below mid-calf.
"There were so many things going through my mind," Nick Parry recalled. "I taught him the game. It's because of me that he's probably playing the game. If I hadn't done what I did, then he wouldn't be where he was."
The fighting spirit that had enabled Neil, at 6-foot-1 and 175 pounds, to make the team as a non-scholarship player carried him through crisis after crisis.
"You can just see it in his eyes," said Parry's roommate, Spartans quarterback Scott Rislov. "You can see it when he comes home and sits on the couch -- he's not going to let anything stand in his way."
Parry had hoped to play in 2001, but when that went awry he set his sights on the 2002 home opener against, coincidentally, Texas-El Paso.
Red tape
That's when the hurdles changed to red tape. His insurance carrier, Mutual of Omaha, threatened to cancel its lifetime coverage for Parry's prostheses. When that problem cleared -- Mutual of Omaha reconsidered its position -- Parry's leg acted up.
Another operation was needed.
"After 25 surgeries and just problem after problem, everything kept going the wrong way," Parry said. "A few times it was just like, 'Man, is this really what I want to do? Is this going to happen?' But this last summer everything just started going well and one thing led to another."
Last month, Parry began practicing in full pads for the first time since the injury. A week ago, he finally convinced Coach Fitz Hill that he was ready.
"He's earned the right," Hill said. "Nobody's given him anything."
Scenarios
"So many different scenarios have run through my head," Parry said.
The best ones: He blocks a punt, or he throws a block that keys a touchdown run.
The reality: If he doesn't play well, he might not play again. But tonight is a dream come true, a promise kept, and Parry will take the field with a new vision forming, one in which he runs out there to meet his parents for Senior Day on Nov. 22.
"I want to finish what I started," Parry said.