PSU loses star LB
All-American ends PSU career, says concern for son’s health key reason
Micah Parsons makes it official: He won’t play this season.
Nobody knows for certain if there will be college football in 2020, but if Penn State plays, it will do so without All-American linebacker Micah Parsons.
In a video posted Thursday to social media, Parson, from Harrisburg, confirmed reports that he will opt out of the 2020 season. Yahoo Sports first reported that decision late Tuesday.
“While I felt safe with the health and safety standards as we returned to Penn State for workouts, the potential risk to the health and wellbeing of my son far outweighed my urge to play football this season,” he said on Instagram, adding that he plans on graduating early and receive his degree in December.
Several scouts project Parsons to be a sure firstrounder in the 2021 NFL draft.
“Hearing that we’re coming back is a relief,” he told reporters via Zoom in June. “It’s a relief because you want to play in front of fans. You want to have that type of environment. I hope that things can go back to normal. … We’re going to keep moving in the right direction ... ”
Parsons, of course, couldn’t predict then that the COVID-19 pandemic would continue to evolve and potentially impact the fall season. Since then, he has watched several other athletes opt out and entire conferences and other schools decide against a season. Now, he’ll turn his attention to draft preparation.
He entered the Penn State program as a five-star recruit with high expectations. Parsons quickly exceeded those projections with a team-leading 83 tackles while only starting one game his first year. He made the freshman All-American team.
The 6-foot-3 245-pound linebacker’s statistics jumped off the page last season when he had, 109 tackles, 5 sacks, 5 pass deflections and 4 forced fumbles with 1 recovery. He was the first sophomore to be voted as the Big Ten Conference’s linebacker of the year award.
Parsons still will wait to hear his name at draft time, but he’ll be doing so without playing another game at Beaver Stadium.
“You’ve given me [the] opportunity of a lifetime to achieve my dreams and aspirations,” Parsons said of Penn State on his Instagram video.
No fans decision
Shortly after Penn State athletics emailed seasonticket holders Thursday to say the school wasn’t planning to have fans at fall events — including football — athletic director Sandy Barbour and other department officials briefed reporters on reasons for the decision and other topics via Zoom.
“As of today, the current large group gatherings guidance from the governor’s office limits capacity to 250 people for outside events and 25 people for inside events,” the letter to season-ticket holders read. “Therefore, under the current conditions and current state orders, our fall sports events would be conducted without fans in the general seating areas of our facilities. We continue to work with the governor’s office to discuss, and possibly be prepared for the opportunity to have spectators at our fall Penn State sporting events.”
Penn State presented football season-ticket holders with three options in place of them being in attendance for games in 2020. Fans could make the payment into a taxdeductible donation, use the money toward 2021 season tickets or request a refund. If fans take the refund option, they would have to deduct the seat-licensing fee, and the seat-licensing cost would become a tax-deductible donation. Barbour said some ticket holders were annoyed that choosing that option would not have their 2020 seat location or parking guaranteed for the 2021 season.
“There are probably no good answers here, and we had some difficult decisions to make,” Barbour said.
“I’m trying to make sure that in this difficult time, our fans had choices to pick from that fit their particular circumstance at this time, understanding that everyone is different.”
Barbour also said she is taking a 15% pay cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that other Penn State administrators as well as athletic department staff members also are taking cuts.
She would not confirm if football coach James Franklin, who makes more than $5 million and is the highest-paid public employee in the state, is among them.
But the letter made one other thing painfully clear: “Regardless of whether we play or don’t play, our revenue losses will be in the high eight figures, reaching nine figures in the case of no competition.