Georgia player who tripped Sugar Bowl referee absent from spring roster
- Classic City News
- Mar 15
- 2 min read
By Trevor Michael/Dawn of the Dawg
Do you remember the infamous sideline play from Georgia football’s loss to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl last season? It was still early in the game with the score still tied at zero, but Georgia was marching down the field looking to take an early lead.
Gunner Stockton connected with Arian Smith down the Georgia sideline who nearly ended up scoring on the play before being tackled in the red zone. However, a flag thrown against Georgia’s sideline brought the big gain back outside the red zone. And this is where the drive stalled for Georgia who ended up settling for a field goal.
The reason the play was flagged was because walk-on defensive back Parker Jones got in the sideline officials way and accidentally tripped him during the play .
A big debate ensued in the days after this game as the ref was pretty far into the bench area, but Jones still took a lot of blame, especially from Georgia football fans.
Fast forward to spring now and according to onlineathens.com , Jones is no longer on Georgia’s roster.
Parker Jones no longer with Georgia
It’s unclear why Jones is no longer with the program as Kirby Smart has not been asked about this directly yet. There’s a chance it could just be normal roster turnover because Jones was a walk-on who never played, but there was a chance he was kindly asked to leave the team too.
To be fair to Jones, it is unlikely that any player would be asked to leave the team because of a one time incident like this, so the likely scenario is that he decided to move on from his time with the team.
As mentioned, Jones never played at Georgia, so this loss doesn’t impact the team much at all. So this will just go down as a weird ending after an unfortunate moment in his Georgia career.
This story is really interesting, not just because of the player’s absence from the roster but also because it highlights how quickly circumstances in sports can change. Athletes often face intense scrutiny, and one incident can have lasting consequences for their careers. At the same time, the sports world is tied to many other industries where rules and discipline matter just as much. For instance, in gaming, understanding the regulatory landscape is crucial, as shown here https://www.completesports.com/gambling-license-in-south-africa-application-process-and-costs-explained/. Whether on the field or off it, structure and compliance are what keep organizations moving forward.