Last week wasn’t kind to Denver Broncos second-year safety Will Parks.
Parks made headlines on two separate occasions. First, when he posted video of two errant Paxton Lynch passes from a closed practice to his Snapchat account. Then again on Friday, when Mike Klis of 9News reported that Parks was facing misdemeanor domestic violence charges stemming from an incident with his former girlfriend that resulted in his arrest in March.
Following Monday’s OTA practice, Parks took the podium to address both situations.
“The facts will come out when I deal with the legal process,” Parks said of the incident with his former girlfriend. “However many court dates I need to attend, I’ll do it. That’s up to the police out here in Adams County to figure out what is going on.”
When it comes to the Snapchat incident, Parks says that there wasn’t any intention to make quarterback Paxton Lynch, or anyone else, look bad. Instead, Parks’ claimed that he was just trying to show how hard he and his teammates were working during OTAs.
“It had nothing to do with Paxton or anybody else on the field,” Parks said of the Snapchat video. “That was just me showing my progress and showing how hard we work back there when we’re at practice. It was a mistake, but at the same time, there weren’t any [negative] intentions toward anybody. At the end of the day, I just wanted to show how hard my teammates and I are working.”
“Absolutely not,” head coach Vance Joseph said about whether or not Parks’ decision was acceptable. “And it’s been addressed. But again, it’s all about intent. What was his intent? His intent was to show how hard he was working for us and for this city. It wasn’t about hurting a teammate or hurting the Broncos.”
According to Joseph, Parks was not punished for posting the video.
Parks’ teammates also seem to know that there was no intent to damage a teammate. Both Parks and defensive end Derek Wolfe claimed that the issue went over fine in the locker room.
“I think it’s something that we’re going to handle internally and I don’t think he meant any harm by it. In our eyes, it’s fake news, making something out of nothing, which is what you guys usually do,” Wolfe said to the gathered media at UCHealth Training Center.
“Like I said, they knew the intentions of [the Snapchat],” Parks said. “There weren’t any [negative] intentions, to be honest. They knew what it was. We were laughing about it. It created a little bit of turmoil, but we just laughed about it. It wasn’t anything like that.”
Parks claims to have learned his lesson, in regards to both his legal incident as well as his misuse of social media.
“At the end of the day, I learn from my mistakes.” Parks said. “I learned from how I handled and did things, how I talk to certain people, do certain things – Snapchat of course. That’s just a lesson learned for me.”
When it comes to Parks’ domestic violence incident, the discipline is now in the hands of the NFL, who has cracked down on issues regarding players and domestic violence issues in recent years.
“The league has its rules in place as far as domestic violence,” Joseph said. “Again, it’s a league matter. Whatever happens, it comes from the league, not from us.”
“I’m not worried about anything going on with that,” Parks said of the possibility of being punished by the NFL. “If you’re a cop, you handle that. I’m a football player; I play for the Broncos. I have to worry about my team and what’s going on with myself. As long as I do that, everything should be fine.”
