Preston Parker dismissed from Florida State after 3rd arrest

Published on February 3, 2009 by Seahawk Fanatic

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Preston Parker’s troubled football career at Florida State is over after his second arrest in less than a year.

Coach Bobby Bowden announced the junior receiver was dismissed from the team Monday in a one-sentence statement released by the school. Parker, who met with Bowden before the announcement, will remain in school on scholarship.

The 21-year-old Parker, from Delray Beach, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence after Tallahassee police found him asleep in his running car early Saturday.

The police report said Parker admitted he had been drinking and smoking marijuana. It was the third time Parker has been arrested since 2006.

Parker was suspended for the first two games of the 2008 season after being arrested last April in Palm Beach County on weapons and drug charges. One of the charges was a felony that was later reduced as part of an agreement on a guilty plea by Parker. He was sentenced to 50 hours of community service, a year’s probation and weekly drug testing.

Parker was also arrested in 2006 after police said he tried to steal a DVD from Best Buy. The charge was dismissed after he entered a diversionary program and paid $200 in court costs.

Parker’s dismissal comes two days before national signing day, when major college football programs such as Florida State unveil their latest recruiting classes.

Florida State is also expecting to hear from the NCAA on sanctions for an academic cheating scandal that resulted in the suspension of more than five dozen athletes, including some football players, at the school for some games.

Parker, who also played some at running back and returning kicks, caught 104 passes for 1,189 yards and five touchdowns in three seasons.

Parker’s dismissal, combined with Greg Carr’s departure after four productive seasons at Florida State, means the Seminoles will be relying heavily on underclassmen at wide receiver next season.

Taiwan Easterling and Bert Reed combined for 53 catches good for 617 yards and four touchdowns as freshmen last season. Reed, however, was suspended three times last season and arrested once for his role in a campus brawl in November that resulted in five receivers, including Easterling, being suspended for one game.

Parker was freed Sunday from the Leon County Jail on $500 bail

Seahawks 12th Man Army has now gone mobile! Go to http://www.noticeorange.com/r/Seahawks12thManArmy to get an app for your phone. It's free and it has alerts so that you'll know whenever Seahawks 12th Man Army has anything new. What could be better?

Tags: Best Buy, Coach Bobby Bowden, College Football Programs, Driving Under The Influence, Drug Charges, Florida Seminoles, football, Football Career, football players, Guilty Plea, National Signing Day, NFL FOOTBALL, Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, Productive Seasons, Sentence Statement, Smoking Marijuana, Taiwan Easterling, Tallahassee Fla, Tallahassee Police, Underclassmen, Wide Receiver

Fair Use Notice This website may at times present copyrighted material, the use of which might not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available in an effort to advance understandings of democratic, economic, environmental, human rights, political, scientific, and social justice issues, among others. The author believes that this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U. S. Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the articles published on this website are distributed without profit for research and informational purposes. In most instances a link is placed to originator of Article and it is never expressly mentioned as written by, we use published by certain entities who write or publish for this said Blog..