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Parrish Cobb sentenced

Gil Bang

By Gil Bang
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UDontKnow

UDontKnow 10441

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1 minute ago, texifornia said:

Damn, Ryan Leaf broke into two different houses and only got two

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/former-nfl-qb-ryan-leaf-released-from-prison-after-two-years/

That's why I inquired on the Recruiting Forum where this topic was brought up by @Machinator whether or not 18 years was a bit much of a punishment for Cobb.

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TreatyOak

TreatyOak 16311

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Judge Ralph Strother of Waco's 19th State District Court said he reluctantly accepted the 18-year plea bargain. 

"Sounds to me that given the opportunities you have had in your life, and the fact that you considered associating with someone as heinous as Art Briles, you are fortunate to be getting the deal you are getting," Strother told Cobb. 

Cobb's attorney, J.R. Vicha, declined any personal contact with Art Briles after Monday's brief hearing. 

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Dnaguy

Dnaguy 11920

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4 hours ago, texifornia said:

He stood up the staff because he was hungover. He didn't get a second meeting even when his dad drove him back to apologize.

Total dad fail.

Father of daughter main objective: Keep off pole.

Father of son main objective: Keep out of pokey.

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Goo Punch

Goo Punch 4275

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4 minutes ago, TreatyOak said:

What is strange is that he seems like his dad was involved. Shame that he didn't get better guidance to keep him on a better path. His friends looks like he was the main culprit but who knows. 

I’ve known plenty of UT players personally who got a ton of guidance and support from friends, family, position coaches, Mack Brown, former players, you name it, and they repeatedly pissed it all away. Sometimes you just can’t tell a kid  nothing.

 

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54208

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2 hours ago, TreatyOak said:

What is strange is that he seems like his dad was involved. Shame that he didn't get better guidance to keep him on a better path. His friends looks like he was the main culprit but who knows. 

Kind of reminds me of the Dallas Carter stuff.  Most of those kids were from good 2-parent families, but they somehow decided that because they were good at football, they were untouchable.

Watching those dads on the 30 for 30 talk about it was just heartbreaking.  

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TreatyOak

TreatyOak 16311

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22 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

Kind of reminds me of the Dallas Carter stuff.  Most of those kids were from good 2-parent families, but they somehow decided that because they were good at football, they were untouchable.

Watching those dads on the 30 for 30 talk about it was just heartbreaking.  

That's such a strange story. The whole thing is so sad.  

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  • 5 weeks later...
Machinator

Machinator 32099

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https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/article214414934.html

A parent's pain over his imprisoned football star son

Quote

WACO 
No way this is right.

The New Orleans-style house is huge, located in a tidy cul-de-sac, and a stones throw away from Lake Waco on the north side of town. The home is immaculate. There are cute dogs. A big yard. Framed pictures throughout a loving home. Games for kids. A fridge covered with family photos.

No way this is the childhood home of a young man who was just sentenced to 18 years for aggravated robbery.

"That's why I invited you into my home," Collis Cobb said. "I wanted people to know that was not the way we raised our child.

"This doesn't make sense."

In 2015, Parrish Cobb was one of the most celebrated high school athletes to ever come out of Waco. The defensive back/wide receiver even led La Vega to its first state title. He originally verbally committed to play for Oklahoma, but then switched and signed with Baylor.

After then-head coach Art Briles was fired in May of 2016, Cobb, like many players of that recruiting class, got out of his National Letter of Intent with Baylor and changed schools. He ended up at Oklahoma where he played for one injury-filled season.

In January 2017, Cobb and some friends were arrested for the armed robbery of a Baylor student. He also had two other robbery charges against him in Waco and Bellmead.

In June 2018, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison. His father said he is hopeful his son will be eligible for parole in eight years.


"You never adjust to your child being in jail," Collis Cobb said quietly in his kitchen. "You sit back and think, 'Where did I go wrong? How did I fail? Did I give too much? Was I too strict? Was I too demanding? What did I do as a parent to fail him?'"


There are no answers today, nor are any coming.

Despite the many advantages Collis and his wife worked to create for their son and two older daughters, they are dealing with the reality that so much of parenting is blind luck the moment the child leaves the house. They worked hard, tried their best, and their youngest child who earned a full scholarship to play at Oklahoma is still in jail.

They are left to ask why, to pray, to talk when he calls, and to prepare for the day when he can come home.


'You have to be mistaken'
Collis awoke at 3 a.m. by the police at his door. Parrish, who was limited to four games as a true freshman at OU because of hamstring injuries, had come home not long after the Sooners' win over Auburn in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2, 2017.

On the morning of Jan. 10, 2017, Waco cops wanted to know if Collis Cobb owned a Dodge Challenger.

"Where is my son," he asked and invited the police into his house.

Parrish did not answer his phone. The cops told him Parrish was sought in the robbery attempt of a Baylor student on Jan. 10. He was linked to other armed robberies as well.

"You have to be mistaken," Collis told them. "My son doesn't have to rob anybody. We're not rich, but we're not struggling."

Oklahoma suspended him immediately.

His high school coach at Waco La Vega, Willie Williams, told me in a phone interview that he believed Parrish had some friends from high school who pulled him in the wrong direction.

Cobb was an all-everything athlete with good grades, a pretty smile, handsome, and the homecoming king.

"When he came home after the Sugar Bowl he got with this one guy and I couldn't believe it," Collis Cobb said. "Parrish would tell me, 'It's not like that.' But there is something there. I don't know if it was pressure .... I don't know."

In April 2017, Cobb was arrested in Norman. Another armed robbery. Then OU coach Bob Stoops made it clear that Cobb's time with the Sooners was over.

The only remaining question for Parrish was how much time he would serve in jail.

In June '18, Judge Ralph Strother of Waco's 19th State district court sentenced him to 18 years.

Strother told Cobb, "Sounds to me that given the opportunities you have had in your life, which I know about, and the mess you have made out of your life, you are fortunate to be getting the deal you are getting."

"I was in disbelief," Collis Cobb said. "I mean, you feel for everybody. The people, the victims and their families who were affected by this. But you read the stories and heard what people said that (Parrish) had unfit parents or parents who didn't care. That he was a thug. He was not one of those kids who disrespected parents. He didn't wear his pants under his butt. I couldn't believe it. It's still hard to sink in."

What was he thinking?
Upstairs in the house, much of Parrish Cobb's bedroom remains intact when he left for Norman in the fall of 2016. The edge of the bedroom mirror is still adorned with loads of credentials from the football camps he was invited to, and the official and unofficial visits to various college campuses.

There is a giant stuffed animal of a dog in between the bed and the window. This is not the bedroom of a thug. Some punk. Some hardened criminal.

This is the bedroom of a teenager who was still a little kid.

Nothing in this home, or his bedroom, suggests there was any way Parrish would go down a path that would lead to a prison cell.

Certainly not the "fun room" on the first floor where Collis and his wife deliberately put in a Pop-A-Shot, a TV, and an air hockey game, all designed to entice kids to the house, and to keep them there.

Not the living room. Not the kitchen.

Collis is a manager at a nearby food plant. His wife works as a manager at Sam's Club.

"I grew up in East Waco where we ran from the police and we heard the gun shots," Collis said. "That's not here."

Parrish has two older sisters; the middle sister, Tianna, is currently enrolled at Oklahoma to earn her PhD. She could have attended Texas, but chose OU to be closer to Parrish.

It's in these moments Collis wonders, repeatedly, what if his son had not attended Oklahoma but stayed at home to play for Baylor. Or gone to Texas, or elsewhere.

Tiny developments like this make Collis mad. He does not stay mad for too long because, as he said, there is no point.

He has to be strong, and think of something to say when Parrish calls from jail. He is currently in McLennan County Jail; Collis is not sure when his son will be transferred, or to where.


He has asked his son to answer the one question anyone would wonder: What was he thinking?

"I want him to answer that not for me or his mother but for himself," he said.

His son tells him what jail is like; who the good people are to align with. He reads a lot. Collis thinks his son is likely bored, too.

"He's always on my mind. When I think about him, I think about his future and I try to think what we're going to talk about when he calls so he can stay positive in there," Collis said. "To think I could have talked to him whenever he was in Norman, I mean, you can't think of that many topics to talk about. But when you have to, you realize you can, because that's what is important. I want him to make sure he's a part of our lives forever. There is a still a lot of life left.

"I just want him to have a plan so when he's released he can go out and be successful."

Collis figures his son will be 28 years old when he is released.

He is honest when he speaks to his son, that football is over. Life is not.

Standing a few feet from his son's trophies in his bedroom he said to me, "I read what you wrote that day; you wrote, 'What a waste.'"

I ask, "Is it?"

"It's a wasted opportunity," Collis said, "but it doesn't have to be a waste of a life."

It's the one thing in this whole tragic saga that makes sense.

 

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