The Indianapolis Colts have found someone willing to call plays on offense for Sunday's game against the Raiders. Because new head coach Jeff Saturday's experience tops out at high school, and assistant coaches Gus Bradley and John Fox work on the defensive side of the ball, the task has fallen to 30-year-old pass game specialist and assistant quarterbacks coach Parks Frazier. Just three years ago, he was the assistant to previous Colts head coach Frank Reich. Look at him now!
Who the hell is Parks Frazier? Great question. In my best Heavy.com impression, let me give you five fast facts you need to know, except I only have four. The first fact comes from NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, who is generously stretching this man's résumé:
Young but talented, Parks Frazier played QB at Northeast Mississippi Community College and Murray State. He joined the #Colts as Frank Reich’s assistant in 2018, helping with the practice plan, call sheets and scripts. Now, Frazier is expected to replace Reich as play-caller. https://t.co/z5MyyecRPP
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 8, 2022
Not just the practice plan, but call sheets and scripts too? Fantastic. Makes sense to go with him over, say, Scottie Montgomery, who coaches the Colts' running backs and was at least an offensive coordinator in college football two years ago. After serving as the assistant to the head coach for two seasons, Frazier was promoted to offensive quality control coach in 2020, then assistant QBs coach in 2021. The second fact is his pivotal role in last year's in-season version of Hard Knocks: Frazier was the one who told Reich that offensive lineman Quenton Nelson had tested positive for COVID-19.
You can't teach that kind of news delivering.
But Frazier is more than his job. Third fact: He is the husband of Caroline Cann, a former reporter for the Colts' team site. They met on the job and were married in 2020. Reich, an ordained minister, performed the wedding.
Reich has only performed a couple of wedding ceremonies before, but he has given plenty of pre-game and halftime speeches.
“When you’re performing a ceremony of people that you know and love, what makes it special is to add the personal connection. So, as I was preparing that, I was like, what am I going to say to these two?,” he said. “And it was only appropriate that I said, ‘you want to know what the great foundation for a marriage is?’ And it just happened to be the three T’s that we talked about as a football team.”
Reich first shared this quote two years ago when he was hired as the leader of the Colts. His first message to his new team was “to build a culture with three ‘T’s’: trust, toughness and teamwork.”
WISH-TV
Adorable. Fourth fact: In 2019, Frazier's house was shot 77 times by eight people in what police later believed was a case of mistaken identity. He was not home at the time.
Actually, I do have a fifth fact: Parks Frazier's first name is actually Randall, but he goes by Parks, which is his middle name.
As you can see, there's plenty to learn about Parks Frazier, the man picked to turn around the Indianapolis Colts' offense. If the Raiders lose to this team on Sunday, Josh McDaniels should be fired before he gets back to the locker room.
