"That just took something out of him," his father said. "I mean, he cried, cried, cried. It took him awhile to get out of it, and by the time he decided he was going to get out of it, he'd done lost his position."
Parker was nicknamed "the Clinton Bypass," a reference to his supposed reluctance to run between the tackles. And the new Tar Heel coach, John Bunting, utilized him less each season. He didn't play at all in his final game, against Duke on Senior Day in 2003.
"That was like a slap in my face," Parker said Tuesday in Detroit. Of his overall experience at North Carolina, Parker said, "That was like a rainstorm, and I wasn't prepared for that rainstorm coming out of high school. ...
"I won't blame it all on the coaches. I take some of the blame myself. We just didn't see eye to eye. It was just one of those situations where the coach is always going to be right and the player's never right.
"They decided not to play me and I had to live with it."
Whatever the reason for his disappearance at North Carolina -- he rushed for 1,172 yards in four seasons, only 181 in 48 carries as a senior -- Parker still believed that somehow, some way, he had a shot at reaching the NFL.
Undeterred, he returned to his roots at Royal Lane Park.
"He came home and just started running across those fields, training like he was going somewhere," his mother said, gesturing across the road.
Interjected Willie Sr.: "I thought he was trying to kill himself. I even said something to him. He said, 'It's called getting prepared.' "
Parker wasn't drafted, but Rooney remembered him, and, acting on a recommendation from the owner's son, the Steelers signed him as a free agent.
As Lewis said last week, "That's a heck of a connection."
Rooney said that while living in Clinton he had naturally gravitated to the high school football games because they were such a big deal in the town.
And not only did he recommend Parker, he recruited him too, the scout calling Parker regularly in the days and weeks after his final game at North Carolina to tell him that the Steelers were still interested.
"It was just a matter of taking a guy with speed," said Rooney, who now lives upstate in Gastonia. "And I knew coming from a serious high school program that he wouldn't quit, that he'd keep driving. Willie took it from there."
