From Dolphins Fan To Dolphins Hero, Jupiter Native Cody Parkey Is Living The Dream
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DAVIE (CBSMiami) – Miami Dolphins kicker Cody Parkey made quite the debut with his new team on Sunday.
In his first game as a member of the Dolphins Parkey made all five of his kicks, four field goals and an extra point.
His 54-yard field goal with 1:05 to go propelled Miami past the host Los Angeles Chargers for the Dolphins first victory of the season.
"It's still sinking in a little bit," Parkey said Monday. "But at the same time, I'm a guy that's like 'Alright, let's go to the next game now.' It's in the past now. It happened yesterday, so I'm already looking forward to going and getting a win vs. the Jets."
Parkey grew up with his family in Jupiter, a little more than an hour away from Hard Rock Stadium, in a house that was full of Dolphins fans.
While the 75 mile drive was a little too far for season tickets, the Parkey family made it to their fair share of football games.
"We would go to like one [Dolphins game] per year," Parkey said. "Nothing crazy, but Sunday when 1 p.m. hits, we were glued to the TV."
Watching all those Dolphins games as a kid, it's difficult to imagine that Parkey didn't picture himself on that field helping his favorite team to victory.
"Growing up and watching Olindo Mare and all of those guys, watching those guys kick, I always thought it would be pretty cool to do so. Now I'm here, so it's awesome," he said with a smile.
Not everyone gets to live out their childhood fantasies but Parkey did just that in his first game with Miami, kicking a game-winning field goal less than two weeks after being signed.
Miami's coaching staff has done a good job making Parkey feel comfortable despite being the new guy on the team.
When it was time to kick the go-ahead field goal, Parkey went about his business as normal and said that Dolphins special teams coach Darren Rizzi allowed him to do his thing.
"I walked on the field and [Rizzi] kind of knew to let me do my routine and I think that's the best way to do it," Parkey said. "Don't add any emphasis on it, just go out there and kick it."
As long as he continues to kick it as well as he did on Sunday, Parkey could have a long and successful career for his favorite team.
Which, we can all agree, is pretty darn cool.
