Iowa's Phil Parker laments changes in football mentality

IOWA CITY — During last week's game against Wisconsin, Iowa linebacker Josey Jewell put a big hit on Badgers quarterback Alex Hornibrook.

Jewell came on a blitz and buried his helmet in Hornibrook's right shoulder/chest area. In real time, Hornibrook's head snapped back, giving the appearance that's where he was hit. The flag was thrown immediately, and for a short time, it looked again like 'The Outlaw' was going to spend the rest of a game in the locker room. After a review, the officials correctly found Jewell didn't make a helmet-to-helmet hit, the flag was picked up and play went on.

But for those moments between the flag and the referee's overturn, there was a high level of stress and anxiety on the Hawkeyes' sideline and in the booth.

For Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker, that time represented another in a long line of instances where football has become a different game.

'You know, it's really hard, because the game of football has really changed,' Parker said. 'And it's going to come pretty soon to flag football, I think, at times. And it's a shame. It's kind of going away. And hopefully I won't be around by that time.'

Parker, along with offensive coordinator Greg Davis and head coach Kirk Ferentz, addressed media on Wednesday, and gave that as his initial response to the question about how he felt during the Jewell review.

But he didn't stop there.

The Ohio native and Michigan State graduate has been a full-time football coach since 1988, and football has obviously undertaken many changes since he's been imparting his wisdom on college athletes. Mostly in the name of player safety, hits are being called differently and certain positions are being protected. It's that idea — that players need protected — with which Parker seemed to take issue.

Like his boss and cohort on the other side of the ball, Parker is old school in many ways. And he said Wednesday the rule changes have made it so mindsets have changed. Receivers who used to fear going over the middle, he said, now 'can catch the ball free' because defenders are thinking twice, afraid of getting called for something.

He said some of the changes have taken away individual players' personal responsibility for what happens to them on the field, and put it on someone else, adding that 'you don't walk down the street in Chicago without understanding that there's cars going down there that it's dangerous on the highway, isn't it? … The same thing with football.'

'The game is a violent game. We all know it before we get here. As soon as we walk on and get into the field, everybody knows that we're playing tackle football,' Parker said. 'And as soon as you tell me there's a defenseless player on the field, how come he doesn't know that we're playing the game of football? We're allowing receivers down field to catch balls, uncontested, getting hit. If you blow on them, touch them, you're going to get a flag. Anything that you do to anybody.

'It's a violent game, everybody knows it. They sign up for it. I wish everybody would kind of look over that.'

Parker's opinion on the state of football was certainly not without acknowledgment of concussions and other injuries that everyone has learned much more about in the last several years.

Obviously no one, Parker said, wants to see players get hurt. And as a defensive back at Michigan State, Parker said, 'I had many concussions, so I understand that.'

But again, he said, no one steps onto the field without knowing that's a possibility. His displeasure also lies, in part, in the changes to football simply shifting the focus of injury from one part of the body to another. Discussing it left Parker visibly frustrated, and still searching for a good answer.

'You're taking the risk going out there and that's what you're doing, you know it. You know the risk,' Parker said. 'But now the big thing now is the rugby tackle, right? That's what a lot of people are going to now. It's really cutting you down. What do you want? Do you want a ruined knee or a concussion? Sometimes I think that's where it's going down. And now you can't hit down too low, because they're going to say that's a penalty too, because you can't hit the quarterbacks low, right? Is that right? I don't even know anymore.'

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