Exclusive Interview with Tony Parrish – SF 49ers Strong Safety

By Ivette Ricco

Tuesday August 15, 2006
Santa Clara, California

All photos by Myrna Giannoulis
49ers Training Camp Photo Gallery Here

This was my second visit in 10 days to the 49ers training camp. On my last visit, on Saturday August 5 th, I was simply a fan.

But today, August 15, 2006 I’m here on behalf of Femmefan.com.

I had been granted permission to interview Tony Parrish the hard-hitting veteran safety for the 49ers.

Tony attended the University of Washington and was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the 2 nd round of the 1998 draft; Tony has been a 49er since 2002. Tony Parrish is known as a hard hitter and is adept at reading plays and picking off passes. In his career he has 30 interceptions.

This week Tony Parrish was the subject of a Sports Illustrated special series, “Players Edge”, featuring “core values”.

As I waited for Tony to come off the practice field I noticed that most of the players had already left the field and either headed inside or had stopped to sign autographs for the kids. I wondered if I had somehow missed him but was reassured that he was still on the field and would come over as soon as he was done.

As it turns out Tony stayed on the field to help a young player do a little extra work.

Once he worked with the player for he made his way to the line of kids waiting for autographs. Not only did he stop to sign their autographs but he also stopped and signed every piece of memorabilia they held out for him.

Ladies, Tony Parrish is charming, funny and my best interview subject, ever.

After speaking with him for over 40 minutes on a wide range of topics including football, his dog Capone, his favorite restaurant and his favorite indulgence, it’s apparent that Tony Parrish is not just a great set of abs in a skintight uniform!

Tony went on the record with this comment, “ I get paid a king’s ransom to play a child’s game.”

Tony you’re one of the more veteran players on the team right now, I did an interview with Bryant Young and he’s the old man of the team.

“Yes he is.”

But you’ve been around quite a while you’ve seen the ups and downs, what do you expect to happen this season?

“I’m expecting, if we can be blessed with health, I’m expecting a lot more wins and a lot more production definitely. I like defensively how we’re coming together in the system and I like what we’re seeing from our offense with the system Norv Turner’s bringing in. He’s known for being an offensive mind.”

I was at the game on Friday and it seemed as if the offense was working very smoothly and going right through the Chicago defense, which is a pretty good defense, without a problem, it seemed as if everybody knew what to do.

“Yes we jumped off first with a turnover and a defensive score and I think in the whole game we had 48 defensive snaps; which if you can do that you’re having a good day.”

The hallmark of a championship team is always a great defense.

If the building block this season is to build the defense so that the offense can operate effectively do you see the 49ers being on the right track?

“Everybody loves points but the old adage is, defense wins championships.”

“You have to think a long ways and go back to find, quote, unquote, an offensive team who won a Super Bowl.”

“Every year you have to think about it when it comes down to the AFC and NFC championship game all the high powered offensive team falls by the wayside.”

The 49ers defense has been in flux and seemed to lack depth and experience, what about this year’s defense?

“There is experience on the defense, Walt Harris, Mark Roman and Sammy Davis are all guys with experience and this defense is really coming together.”

I was also impressed by the offensive line play on Friday.

“Yes, they did look impressive and very good. If we can just keep the big boys up front healthy, that’s exactly what Alex needs to make him a little more comfortable so he can perform.”

He looked like a totally different quarterback from last year.

“Yes. What a difference a little protection makes.”

It appears as all phases of the team even special teams have improved.

“Exactly a lot more improvement much more balance and I think once things get going there will be some people that are gonna stop and look back over here in Santa Clara and say, wait a second the Niners have a little more than we thought.”

I read an article today, which quoted Bill Walsh as saying that of the teams he had watched in the preseason the 49ers were by far the best team he had seen.

“Well it’s a start, the teams are all out there working putting in their game plan and trying to execute, you have to go out there and establish that game whether it’s the preseason or not.”

Tony I have a couple of other things to ask you about, the Sports Illustrated spread they did on you was in one word, breathtaking.

Because we’re women, we enjoy the male body in all its glory and your photos are a great illustration of that.

The yoga that you’re doing, Bikram yoga, is it really done in a room that’s 110 degrees?

“Yeah it’s pretty hot there. Bikram yoga was something I always wanted to try. In this off-season after I had a broken leg and I was coming back I said, you know what? I need to go ahead and do it. I wanted to use it to help balance my body out so I could get some of the postures on my left and my right leg so I could see where my left leg is as far as the progression. Plus you know it’s just a great stretch I gained a little more flexibility in my hips and my knees. It’s definitely more cardio than you think when you get that heart pumping. There’s been a couple of times where I had to go ahead and lay down because I thought was getting light headed.”

Professional athletes seem to want to find ways to improve in any way they can even if it’s finding ways that are “outside the box”.

“We’ll try just about anything. When you’re competing for so long, your training regimen can get pretty stale so wherever you can incorporate different things, cross train and try different things that might add to your training or give you a little bit of change, we’re all for it.”

So this philosophy about the core, the idea that everything emanates from the inside to the outside is something you believe in?

“Yes guys who have problems with a sports hernia have them because it all starts from the inside out. I’ve had it myself. I haven’t had the hernia but I’ve had tendonitis when I first came out to San Francisco.”

“So I know the problems that can be encountered when the core isn’t right. You then start straining the abdominals on either side and the groin muscle and that’s something that’s rough to work through.”

The NFL is now a 24/7 - 365 day a year career; no longer is it a six-month “sideline”.

How do you maintain your focus, commitment and passion year in and year out?

“You just have to love the game first of all. And then second of all when the season ends guys get away for about a month and then start training again. In the off-season the action starts back up around the 20 th of March, after the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl. So by March you’re back in it again.”

“But it’s also one of those things that we’ve been doing it for so long that after a couple of weeks of doing nothing your body almost kind of tells you, come one, we gotta break a sweat, we gotta do something, gotta feel a little bit of those workout endorphins.”

Tony are you married or single?

“Single.”

Do you live here in the San Francisco Bay Area or do you live elsewhere?

“I live here in the Bay Area and I live in Southern California.”

“I’m back and forth especially since the Bay isn’t very far on that little plane all the time, the Southwest flight.”

You’ve managed to stay here in the West Coast for most of your career; you even attended school in Washington. How did you like the East Coast when you were a Chicago Bear?

“I went to school in Washington and I was drafted by Chicago in 1998. I never really cared where I was I just wanted to try and be in the right situation for myself when it came to the next team I decided to play for. It happened to be out here in Santa Clara, which eventually I ended up loving because my family, my grandmother, my mother, my sister they could all make it to the games much easier which ended up being nice a little perk.”

I imagine that’s a little bit nicer than the cold winters in Chicago.

“Yes most definitely, I’ll tell you this, White Christmas is overrated! I’m gonna tell you that right now.”

“People start talking about California and the mild weather and it’s 70 degrees in Southern California during the holidays, let me tell you White Christmas is overrated!”

“They (White Christmas) only looks good on TV and that’s about it.”

Okay pick one:

A Husky win or a Niners win?

“Oh…I bleed purple too….Niners win.”

A Hawaiian vacation or a European vacation

“European. Because I like to see how other people live. The diversity the difference in the cultures, but at the same time you go to other places and you find out how much people are the same. It’s the politicians that have you thinking otherwise.”

Your favorite indulgence

“My favorite indulgence?....well in training camp it’s a cold tub.”
”But when we’re not in training camp …oh, let’s see…my favorite indulgence…

Are we talking food?”

Anything…. no limit

“Are we talking…oh wow.”

“It’s hard to think right now, I didn’t get a chance to spoil myself with a broken leg this off season.”

“My favorite indulgence would have to be travel. I just love seeing different places and being that guy who sounds terrible trying to speak a different language.”

“You know in this country we have trouble with the whole people not being able to speak properly thing, then we go places and we get nervous as far as speaking. But you know people have to realize that in most of the world it’s all about communication. People appreciate the effort to try and communicate.”

What is your favorite Bay Area restaurant?

“You know what? I’m simple. I’m an at home on the couch kind of guy, low maintenance. So I have to say Houston’s.”

“I like going to Houston’s, you’re not going to see me trying to go to some extravagant restaurant. No I’m going to go to Houston’s and hang out and have the Hawaiian rib eye or spinach dip.”

“I’ll tell them bring me another one, they may look at me funny but I’m serious, bring me another one.”

“Yeah I’m a Houston’s guy.”

Your favorite way to relax

“Because I love to travel so much I love being somewhere where I’m on the beach and just watching other people, just sitting there doing nothing.”

“But if I’m at home it’s on the couch with my dog Capone by my side.”

Capone, like Al?

“Capone, like Al. He’s a red nose Pit Bull. I picked him up when I was in Chicago so I had to give him a Chicago gangster’s name.”

“He’s a big baby. He’s the kind of dog that when you walk in the door he rolls over on his back and waits for you to come to him. He doesn’t even mess around with the whole greeting me thing he knows eventually I’m going make it over there to him.”

“He knows when daddy’s around and he knows when to spring into action, especially around women. He loves women. He’s a sap.”

“I picked him up from Patty Ballard a breeder in South Carolina and her voice was the first human voice he heard. The next day I flew him home to southern California and ever since then my mother has been goo-goo and gaa-gaa over him.”

“My mother calls him her grandson.”

Okay more choices, a night at the Fairmount in San Francisco or a night at the Ritz-Carlton in New York?

“Humm…the Fairmount, the one up on the hill over there, oh wow. Great view from there. You know what? I’m gonna say New York because I haven’t stayed there. I’ve stayed at the Fairmount in SF but I would go to NY because it’s something different.”

Fishing or golf?

“Golf. When I play I just try to keep the ball visible.”

What do you want to say to the female fans here in the Bay Area and around the country?

“I Love a woman who can tell ME what time the game is.”

Tony, rest assured there isn’t a woman out there who wouldn’t mind doing just that!

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