KSU basketball's Brandon Parks getting chance at NFL

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By David Carducci
Record-Courier staff writer
May 8, 2010

Brandon Parks may be on the verge of following the footsteps of Antonio Gates and becoming the next Kent State men's basketball player to make the unconventional leap to the National Football League.

The 6-foot-10, formerly 280-pound Golden Flashes center spent last weekend playing left tackle at rookie camp with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"Everything went pretty well down there, and the Buccaneers said I'd hear back from them sometime within the next week," said Parks, who hadn't put on a football helmet since his high school days in Indiana prior to last Thursday.

If the Buccaneers decide to pass, several other teams are intrigued with Parks' unusual mix of size and athleticism. After he had already committed to attend rookie camp in Tampa, the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons both called to invite Parks to their camps. His agent has also talked with the Chicago Bears.

NFL teams started showing an interest in Parks before the start of his senior basketball season. As soon as the Golden Flashes closed their two-game run in the National Invitation Tournament, Parks started bulking up to impress pro football scouts.

"I'm up to about 310-to-312 pounds right now," said Parks, who led Kent State's basketball team in every weight-lifting category and posted a team-best 33-inch standing vertical.

"I think I can get up to around 330," Parks said. "The physical part of playing football again actually came pretty easy for me last week. Learning the system and all the terminology was the hard part. We basically learned all of their plays and all of their calls at the line in three days.

"I don't know if I've ever learned as much in three days in anything as I did last week," Parks said.

Parks' four-day taste of NFL life was physically and mentally taxing, practicing in 101-degree heat alongside future stars like No. 3 overall NFL draft pick Gerald McCoy, but he loved the experience.

"I think I'd be really happy playing football for a living," he said. "I had a lot of fun. It was pretty crazy to think that I hadn't put on a helmet in so long. Some of the other rookies were surprised to hear that I hadn't played football since high school. They didn't realize it until later in camp."

According to Parks, the last week has been a "dead period" in the NFL, as teams "sort through what they got in the draft and what they had at rookie camp. 

"After that, a lot of teams will approach us again," said Parks. "I think I did well in Tampa, but I don't know if the Bucs need anybody at left tackle."

Kent State men's basketball head coach Geno Ford said he thinks Parks just needs to find "the right fit" in the NFL, as Antonio Gates did in 2003 when he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the San Diego Chargers.

It wasn't long before Gates developed into a Pro Bowl tight end. Ford has no idea if Parks has that kind of star potential as an NFL left tackle, "but Brandon does have some of those same physical tools that you can't teach," he said.

"Brandon is extremely athletic for his size, and he moves well and is an extremely mentally and physically tough guy," said Ford. "He's got the makeup of a football player in that he's played through all kinds of injuries. Last year, he dislocated two fingers in practice one day and didn't miss a rep. The trainer came out, yanked on the fingers, taped them real fast and Brandon was back on the floor without missing a possession.

"He just needs someone to take a chance on him so that he can get into a camp and maybe on a (practice squad). He needs to get with a team that will be patient with him and teach him how to play at that level."