College Football

Micah Parsons shares bond with fellow Penn State legend LaVar Arrington

Updated Jul. 21, 2021 6:56 p.m. ET

By RJ Young
FOX Sports College Football Writer

As we waited for Penn State legend LaVar Arrington to join our three-way Zoom chat, soon-to-be NFL first-round pick Micah Parsons and I got to know each other by talking about something we both know well: tattoos.

Your first tattoo is perhaps your most important one, and that rings true with Parsons.

The 21-year-old Penn State linebacker told me that his first ink was to honor his youth football coach, the late Floyd Ham. Parsons pulled up his right sleeve over a shoulder that looks less like a deltoid and more like a 6-pound bowling ball.

"I wanted to give a tribute to the impact. He had an impact on my life," Parsons said. "He had an impact on a lot of kids’ lives, trying to keep them off the street. I say I get my heart and determination from him."

Now, that determination has another motivator: Parsons’ young son, Malcolm.

Parsons hails from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where one in 111 people becomes victim to a violent crime and one of every 3.3 citizens lives in poverty, where nearly half the population is Black and the annual median household income is a little more than $37,000.

Couple those numbers with the knowledge that as of March 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Black folks are 1.1 times more likely to contract COVID-19, 2.9 times more likely to be hospitalized for it and 1.9 times more likely to die from it than white folks.

Now you should better understand why Parsons — a young father and a Black man from Harrisburg — opted out of the 2020 season in August after initially returning to workouts in June 2020.

"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 well-being of my son far outweighed my urge to play football this season," he said on Instagram.

Parsons went on to graduate from PSU in December.

On top of all this, Parsons knew he had as much chance of sliding out of the first round of the draft (even after opting out) as there is of a quarterback escaping those paws he calls hands. Let the record show ain’t too many quarterbacks ever accomplish that feat.

In two seasons in State College, Parsons racked up 191 tackles and showed the kind of prowess that is rare in today’s linebackers. He’s a sideline-to-sideline inside 'backer who also can scream off the edge like a victim in a slasher film.

In 2019, Parsons racked up five sacks, five passes defended, four forced fumbles and 109 tackles. He was just a sophomore then, and he still earned his way onto the Associated Press All-America First Team.

He’s the first player to accomplish that feat since Arrington, and that’s why I asked to speak with both — together.

On cue, Arrington joined the Zoom. "What up, doe?"

It was time to discuss how the latest man to become a first-team All-American as a sophomore at Penn State (Parsons) became friends with the only man to previously earn that honor, at that position, in nearly 20 years (Arrington).

What is it like for Arrington, who was the No. 2 pick in the 2000 draft and made three Pro Bowls in seven NFL seasons, to see another version of himself coming out of Penn State headed to the NFL Draft?

"Another version?" Arrington said. "He’s his first version. He’s pretty unique. And I noticed that about him immediately."

Both Arrington and Parsons wore No. 11 at Penn State, making them brothers in what Arrington referred to as the "Stick City" lineage.

"Navarro Bowman wore that number," said Arrington, a Pittsburgh native. "I wore that number. Brandon Bell wore that number. And Micah Parsons, to me, represents the best of us."

To be clear: Arrington wanted Parsons in that number. Arrington reached out to Parsons while the latter was in high school building his reputation as one of the top recruits in the country.

As a high school freshman at Central Dauphin High in Harrisburg, Parsons notched 121 tackles, 27 tackles for loss and 18.5 sacks. In 2017, as a senior at rival Harrisburg High, he not only racked up 55 tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks but also starred at running back, with 1,239 yards and 27 touchdowns.

Parsons was rated the fifth-best player in the country in the 2018 class behind Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Xavier Thomas and Eyabi Anoma. And he was coming to Penn State.

Arrington knew the kind of ballplayer Parsons could be, and he made sure Parsons knew he’d be there for him. And Parsons would need that.

He transferred from Central Dauphin to Harrisburg after his response to a racist social media post was heavily scrutinized and resulted in a suspension. In November, former PSU defensive back Isaiah Humphries alleged that Parsons punched, choked and pulled a knife on him and then alleged that PSU coach James Franklin told him not to report the incident.

Arrington knows about these incidents. He knows more about Parsons, too. It’s why he has become a second father to him.

Did Arrington have any advice around the incidents? He didn't relay anything specific. That's all me, knowing their relationship goes back to Parsons’ last year in high school.

"Micah is like my child," said Arrington, who has three children of his own.

"You know the best way to be a parent is just to guide the growth, stimulate the thoughts. But you allow them to experience what they're going to experience. You allow them to be who they're going to be. And that's been our relationship — allowing him to experience it the way he wants to experience it, to do it the way that he wants to do it."

Arrington said Parsons’ ability to think critically has developed rapidly in the short amount of time he has known him.

"There's a brilliance in what it is that he does because it keeps you off-balance," Arrington said. "You don't realize how ultra — there's very few people you will meet that are as ultra-dialed in to how competitive they are. And so because he's so competitive, it's almost like he challenges himself to come up with new ways to figure out how to best you."

One of the places their competitive streaks match up is on the chessboard, Arrington mentioned.

"Hold on," Parsons interjected. "LaVar, who won our last game of chess?"

"Micah Parsons won the last game," Arrington said, confidently.

"Let’s pause right there," Parsons said. "I'm going to show y’all something right now. And this is the reason I beat him in chess."

Parsons reached for his phone to show us his username and player history on the Chess.com app. He explained that he didn’t play chess before meeting Arrington.

Parsons knew about the game, but he saw no reason to try to master it until Parsons and a friend went to Arrington’s house to meet LaVar. Parsons agreed to play a game against Arrington and promptly got checkmated by his elder in 10 moves.

"I'm over here scratching my head. Don't know what's going on," said Parsons, who spent the next two weeks studying the Chess app, "I’m watching videos of moves and things like that."

After those two weeks, Parsons hit up Arrington. He told him he was coming over, and they were going to play chess again.

But Arrington beat him two more times. By the third game, Arrington was getting tired of defeating Parsons. He asked to be done for the day.

"I’m like, ‘No,’" Parsons said, "‘We’re gonna keep playing. You’re not just walking away from this table. That fourth game, I jumped on him. Boom. I was like, ‘I told you I was gonna beat you.’"

Another two weeks went by, and Arrington casually told Parsons that they had not played since Parsons won just that one time. So Parsons answered the challenge.

Arrington won a few more games before Parsons was able to win again.

"I hope everyone out there who's listening to this is following the trend," Arrington said. "He's winning at the end. So really, the count is probably like 8-2 or something like that."

"No, no, no," Parsons said. "Hey, you know what that says about LaVar? He’s a first-half football player."

"Ah, here we go," Arrington said.

"That might be the difference between me and him. I know how to play a full game," Parsons said with a smile. "I finished the games. We’re talking about games. We’re not talking about halves."

"The truth of the story is when I dismissed him so many times," Arrington said, "I'm ready to get up from the table. You know what he says to me?"

"I'm gonna mess with you for the rest of the night," Arrington laughed at the memory.

"And when I tell you he's like my child," Arrington said, "he is my child. So when he says he's going to mess with me, he's going to mess with me. He's literally going to mess with me the entire time."

"And what do you think I did, RJ? What do you think I did?"

"You beat him?" I said.

"No, I let this young man win," Arrington continued. "Because if I keep beating him, he's gonna keep telling me to play. That’s going back to the ultra-competitor that this young man is."

At this, Parsons did not even grasp the compliment. He's too focused not just on winning but on proving to me — to everyone — that he’s good enough to beat LaVar Arrington on a football field, on a chessboard, in all things.

"I just really find that crazy because if he's really the competitor that he says he is?" Parsons said. "I've never in my life let anyone just win just because. I would never do that."

Arrington took measure of this claim. "He still has to get drafted. He still has to get a Pro Bowl bid. As of right now, I actually can hold rank on saying I am pretty ultra-competitive because I've actually proven I’m the best in the pro ranks where you're on your way to, and it's OK.

"I enjoyed being able to actually flex on you in a FOX interview. You're in my house right now. Yeah, this is an interview and — oh, was that competitive, too?"

That’s the point.

Arrington set a high bar at PSU that Parsons reached, and now he will try to reach the one Arrington set in the NFL.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young. Subscribe to "No. 1 Ranked Show w/ RJ Young" on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. He is not on a StepMill.