Former Tar Heels discover success in NFL

The Pittsburgh Steelers finished the NFL regular season an astounding 15-1, tops in the league and just the fourth team in the 16-game era to accomplish that feat.

Much of the national attention around the team has centered on rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, whose precision and poise seemingly have been praised on every airing of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” since his first start in late September.

But on a gloomy January afternoon in Buffalo, Roethlisberger wasn’t the star of the Steelers’ 29-24 defeat of the Bills, assuring the rare one-loss final mark.

Instead, two North Carolina alumni garnered the notoriety. Kicker Jeff Reed went 5 for 5 on field goals and 2 for 2 on extra points, while Willie Parker took 19 carries for 102 yards.

Normally, few football fans would think twice about former Tar Heels having success in the NFL — Julius Peppers and William Henderson qualified for this year’s Pro Bowl, for example. But you can forgive even a die-hard UNC fan who might have been a little surprised at Parker and Reed’s professional accomplishments.

Neither player was drafted, and few scouts forecasted that either of the two would stay afloat in the cutthroat world of professional football.

Instead, both players have overcome their challenges and have contributed to the Steelers’ drive to the Super Bowl, which continues late Saturday afternoon in their divisional playoff game against the New York Jets.

“It’s a blast,” Reed said of this season, which came after the team finished with a 6-10 record last year. “It shows when teams really work together and stick behind each other in all phases of the game, they can be really successful.”

But Reed, who has been the Steelers’ starting kicker for the past two seasons, didn’t even have a football scholarship entering his third season of eligibility in 2000.

But he earned a scholarship and second-team all-ACC honors that season, and after a senior year in which he connected on 12 of 16 field-goal attempts, UNC coach John Bunting recommended Reed for a tryout with the New Orleans Saints during the preseason of 2002.

“We were able to work that deal out so Jeff was able to get exposure and work with (Saints special teams coordinator) Al Everest,” Bunting said. “And we knew based on Jeff’s talent level that he would be able to get much more exposure. It was seen by both me and Al Everest that this kid had talent to kick in the NFL. It’s just a matter of being in the right place.”

That place, after a handful of tryouts in the early part of the 2002 season, ended up being Pittsburgh, where Reed won the kicking job in a four-man tryout in what he called the “worst conditions that I ever kicked in.”

Two years later, including a 28-for-33 field-goal season, Reed has morphed from an NFL hopeful to one of the league’s top placekickers.

“Nobody can get in my head,” Reed said. “You’re only as good as your last kick. If you miss one, you suck. If you make one, you’re back in with everybody. … If you don’t produce, (the fans) let you know about it. It’s all about confidence and being mentally tough, especially as a kicker.”

But while Reed’s transition from college walk-on to starting NFL kicker in less than three years is atypical, his former and current teammate might have an even more improbable story.

At the Peach Bowl in 2001, then-sophomore Willie Parker rushed for 131 yards and a touchdown against a stingy Auburn defense.

It looked as though Bunting’s team had found an explosive weapon to complement quarterback Darian Durant for the next two years.

“I thought after that game it was going to be real good — it was going to be a real good next year for me,” Parker said. “I thought it was basically the start of my career at UNC.”

Instead, he started just five games in his final two seasons, being passed by Jacque Lewis on the depth chart in 2002. The next season, Lewis and freshman Ronnie McGill each more than doubled Parker’s rushing total; Parker accrued 181, the lowest total of his collegiate career.

“It felt real bad,” Parker said. “It was real difficult for me and my family not playing that much, knowing I should have been out there playing. I learned from that, being on the sidelines looking at the other guys playing. I learned a great deal.”

Bunting said that a number of factors contributed to Parker’s reduced playing time but that his improved strength is what helped him earn a place on the Steelers’ 53-man roster.

And with Pittsburgh having already sealed home-field advantage in the playoffs along with injuries to top backs Jerome Bettis and Duce Staley, Parker took advantage of his opportunity to succeed against the Bills.

“When he gets in the secondary, he has another gear,” Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher said at a press conference after the Buffalo game. “He’s the fastest back we have.”

High compliments for a player sharing the backfield with two household names.

But with the veteran stars set to return for the playoffs, it’s doubtful that Parker will play a role in the Pittsburgh running game. He said, however, that he has been practicing as a kick returner and on special teams, so expect to see his number 39 on Heinz Field at some point Saturday.

And as for number 3? Depending on how the playoffs play out, it could be Reed appearing in SportsCenter highlights along with the team’s rookie quarterback.

“Guys on this team are bound and determined to win,” Reed said. “I don’t care what it takes.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.