English
Spanish
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Chinese (Simplified)
Hindi
Japanese
Perhaps Parker Jones didn’t deserve this perp walk in a 13-point loss.
ESPN drew criticism for singling out and focusing its cameras late in the fourth quarter on Georgia’s redshirt sophomore cornerback, who earned a penalty for colliding with a referee during the Bulldogs’ 23-10 loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal on Thursday night.
Announcer Sean McDonough highlighted Jones’ penalty with less than two minutes remaining before the camera then focused on Jones for a noticeable length.
“(I)t’s actually f–ked that ESPN just focused in on Parker Jones two hours later like he was the reason Georgia lost,” Barstool’s Tate Moore wrote on X.
Jones became a college football household name Thursday when he collided with referee JB Garza on a 67-yard play at the beginning of the second quarter in a scoreless game.
The penalty pushed Georgia back from the 11-yard line to the 26. Georgia gained three yards on the next three plays before settling for a field goal to take the early 3-0 advantage.
While the penalty didn’t help, it’s not as if the Georgia’s offense did much after the big play.
Those would be the only points Georgia scored until the Bulldogs tallied a touchdown with 9:36 remaining in the third quarter with Notre Dame reeling off 20 straight points in between.
Clearly the Bulldogs had many issues on this night, including allowing a second-half-opening kickoff return for a touchdown, yet ESPN singled out Jones late in the game.
“The one play that should not be forgotten, will certainly be talked about in the postmortems, is the play at the beginning of the second quarter, about a minute into the second quarter, scoreless game, see the official, the side judge, JB Garza, collide with someone on the Georgia sideline,” McDonough said while the clip of the play showed before panning to Jones walking on the sideline.
“The play went to the 11-yard line, 67 yards, but the 15-yard penalty brought it back to the 25. That’s Parker Jones, a walk-on cornerback who hasn’t played in a game this year. He must be absolutely devastated. Wound up settling for a field goal, took a 3-0 lead. They were poised to score a touchdown.”
That broadcast sequence made it seem as if Jones played a major role in Georgia’s loss.
“The Commentators trying to blame the loss on Parker Jones is insanity😂,” one X user posted. “They had the ball at the 30 that drive and didn’t move an inch.”
Another commented: “ESPN showing Parker Jones again and again acting like he’s the reason that Georgia couldn’t move the ball, tackle, show discipline or come up with the big play when they needed it. Do better.”
Georgia coach Kirby Smart called the penalty “very unfortunate” but did not blame the loss on Jones.
“Very unfortunate,” Smart said. “The white is reserved for the officials. That’s a safety concern. Most of the time, they’ll grant you a warning on that. … It was a situation where it cost us 15 yards. We still had first-and-10 and didn’t take advantage of it.
“But, again, I call those things undisciplined, self-imposed wounds that you lose momentum on. So, it’s just something you can’t have happen.”
