It sucks to be Romeo Parkes right now. The Pittsburgh Riverhounds’ leading scorer just got his contract terminated; he’s fired, something that you rarely hear about in the world of sports. Suspensions, yes. Fines, all of the time, but straight up contract termination is a step above the punishments you normally hear about. Parkes arguably deserved his termination as well.
The context of the incident that led to his termination is a little confusing. There apparently was a confrontation between Parkes, Red Bulls II player Karl Ouimette, and the referee. The ref showed a red card to…one of them. It honestly appears the ref held the card out exactly between the two players, so it’s hard to tell if Parkes or Ouimette got sent off. Regardless, Parkes took the decision the wrong way.
And that is the incident that got Parkes’ contract terminated; a cheap-shot kick to the lower back of Ouimette.
The kick happened on Saturday, May 7th. Parkes’ contract was terminated on Sunday, May 8th. Maybe in a higher profile league Parkes gets more due process, but as a USL player he clearly doesn’t amount to much more that chopped-liver.
I don’t know how hard it will be for Parkes to get signed to another club, but judging by how swiftly his judgement came, and how brutal that kick was, it could be a while.
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