by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
For all of his successes, Bob Parrish occasionally considers the road not taken.
“I still have dreams of playing,” said Parrish, relaxing his long frame in his law office, not so much stretching as uncoiling. “If they really enjoyed football, and they enjoyed hitting, as I did . . . People who know me well say that’s representative of my personality. I enjoyed the physicality of it. There’s a competitiveness there.
“I think I made the right decision. But there’s a small part of me that always wonders, ‘What if?’ ”
The long, lean defensive end caught the attention of college scouts, particularly as a senior at Fletcher Senior High School in 1969. The University of Florida offered him a football scholarship. Instead, he took the one offered by Duke University and majored in English and political science, “somewhat unusual for a jock.”
“I always wanted to play football,” said Parrish, “but I was also a fairly good scholar. I wanted to maintain a dual focus on academics and athletics.
“I don’t want to diminish the academic standing of the University of Florida, but I thought Duke was the best place to do that.”
Parrish was born in Gainesville and spent his earliest years in graduate student housing at the University of Florida, where his father, Edward S. Parrish Jr., attended law school. The family moved to Jacksonville Beach in 1960, and he’s been a beach resident ever since.
Parrish doesn’t recall exactly when, or why, he began competing in football, basketball and swimming. It was probably in the seventh grade. And it probably had something to do with height.
“I don’t remember if I was compelled by pressure, or that I was a tall guy,” he said. “My father played a little high school football, so it was part of my manifest destiny, I guess.”
Parrish eventually stretched to 6 feet 5 inches, but the weight rose only as the metabolism slowed. He got out of high school at 175 pounds. He hit maybe 190 when he entered Duke; 240 pounds when he was a senior.
He weighed 270 when he reported to the New York Jets in 1973. A good size for a lawyer, but a bit light when going helmet to helmet against 320-pounders. Speed was the great equalizer.
“I have a famous saying: speed kills,” said Parrish. “If you’ve got speed, you can build up enough inertia to deal with the weight. You either get around them or go faster and counteract them.”
He was in the NFL for one year and a preseason. Then he broke his hand.
The World Football League came calling, waving the promise of lavish contracts and bright futures in front of the younger players. Parrish signed with the Jacksonville Sharks.
“They approached us and basically signed me to a multi-year contract,” he said. “I thought I was going to get paid a lot of money.
“When I drove up to the Gator Bowl, I saw players loading hot tubs in the back of their trucks as payment on their salaries. I said, this is not a good situation.”
When the WFL folded, Jets’ Coach Weeb Ewbank asked him to come back to the team. The bait was $30,000.
Parrish had already been accepted at Duke Law School in 1973 and debated what to do.
“I turned to my dear friend and mentor, Judge (Gerald) Tjoflat, and his comment was, ‘You’ve been to Las Vegas (meaning the NFL),’ ” Parrish recalled. “‘Now get your blank back in law school.’
“So I heeded his very good advice. Because of his guidance and pressure at that stage of my life, I got on Law Review and published an article.”
After Parrish clerked for a year, Jim Moseley Sr. hired him to practice maritime law at what is now Moseley, Warren, Prichard & Parrish.
“I attribute many of the successes I’ve had to Judge Tjoflat and Mr. Moseley,” Parrish said.
Living at the beach and specializing in maritime law reflect Parrish’s craving to never wander far from the water, “a desire to stay near the sea, where I could satisfy my passion for surfing. I was raised at the beach. It’s part of my blood.”
He won’t concede, at nearly 53, that his surfing days are behind him.
“I tried it two years ago in Puerto Rico and was still too heavy,” said Parrish. “But I’ve done the Atkins deal, and I’ve lost 40 pounds. I’ll continue to do that, I hope. Maybe my board will float me.”
He runs regularly; he hunts and fishes. But he spends most of his free time with his “wonderful wife (Forrest) and three wonderful children (Caitlin, Laurel and Walker).”
Competitiveness, aggressiveness and “a little bit of intelligence” are all part of what makes the practice of law appealing, Parrish said. But there’s a more important consideration.
“Hopefully,” he said, “at the end of the game, it’s the desire for justice. There is a part of man that strives to resolve disputes peacefully.
“The altruistic part of me hopes that part of the motivation for lawyers and litigators is a belief that can happen and that they want to play a part in it.”