DeVante Parker Spit In Face Of Accountability After Patriots’ Latest Loss
Patriots receiver DeVante Parker faced difficult but fair questions as he stood in front of his locker in the visiting dressing room at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday. Parker just dropped arguably Mac Jones’ best throw of the season, a drop that torpedoed New England’s albeit slim chances at a comeback against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Parker’s responses left a lot to be desired.
“I don’t know. What’d you see?” Parker answered when asked what happened on Jones’ deep ball down the sideline.
The wideout said the ball hit his fingertips despite replay proving otherwise.
He added: “Yeah, I guess that’s just what happened. I was behind the coverage. Next?”
Way to take accountability, DeVante.
It served as a notable difference from the last time a Patriots wideout addressed reporters in the same Allegiant Stadium visiting locker room after a result-altering play. That receiver was none other than Jakobi Meyers, who took questions and accountability with tears in his eyes after his Week 15 brain fart. The play, now well-documented, directly led to a New England loss.
“I was just trying to do too much and trying to be a hero, I guess,” Meyers told reporters last December, a game Parker didn’t play in due to concussion. “I should have just went down with the ball.”
While Meyers’ gaffe pales in comparison to Parker’s drop, it’s impossible to ignore how different their reactions were.
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Accountability matters in the NFL. The best players, leaders and teams take accountability when things go wrong and improve on it. Other professional athletes understand that, as evidenced by reports immediately after the Philadelphia Eagles lost to the New York Jets on Sunday afternoon. Parker clearly doesn’t.
At the very least, it’s an indictment on the player himself. And at worst, it’s a snapshot as to why the 1-5 Patriots are in the position they’re in.
If Patriots fans were still searching for optimism that things could turn around, Parker’s passing of the buck certainly didn’t serve as that.