Thursday, October 15, 2009

Willie Parker Wearing Special Shoe in Order to Play



It appears as though Willie Parker is making his best attempt to play this Sunday when the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Cleveland Browns in a divisional match-up by wearing a protective shoe.

Many may think it's a bold move to wear this shoe just to be able to play a few weeks early, but the real reason lies a bit beyond that.

It lies in the hands of a man named Rashard Mendenhall.

This situation played itself out exactly last season, Mendenhall's rookie campaign.

Entering the fourth week of the regular season, the oft injured Willie Parker was ruled out and Mendenhall was given his first NFL start.

He rushed for 30 yards and 9 carries, but left the game in the third quarter due to a fractured shoulder.

Let's fast forward to this season, entering week four, Willie Parker is injured again and Mendenhall is stated to get his second career start.

But this time was different.

Rashard Mendenhall did not get injured. In fact, he was a surprising success.

He rushed fro 165 yards on 29 carries and found paydirt twice in that game. He followed that performance with a 15 carry, 79 yard and one touchdown performance the following week.

He's really shown that he can be the real deal, and that's the reason why Willie Parker will be trying to play this weekend.

After bursting onto the NFL scene in 2005 after being an undrafted free agent the year prior, he took the Steelers and NFL by storm.

But he began to trail off in 2007. He still got his yardage, but the touchdown production ceased after recording only two scores in 15 games during 2007.

Then the injury bug struck. He missed a few games early, and then the big injury caught him when he broke his leg late in the season which ended his 2008 campaign.

His failure to heal and lack of reps in the pre-season caused him to catch criticism on his ability to heal and be an every-down back in today's NFL.

Parker ended up missing five more games in 2008, and now he's back on the injury report in 2009 with an injury to his toe.

But this season, he has competition, and he can feel his job slipping away.

Willie will wear the special show this Sunday, but is it too late? Does Mendenhall already have have firm grasp on Parker's job? I think so.




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