Sirr Parker, left, talks with fellow CB Tom Carter. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        GEORGETOWN, Ky. — Sirr Parker is trying to play in the NFL at cornerback, a position he hasn't played since high school.

        And because of a strained hamstring, he hasn't practiced more than once or twice since the Bengals claimed him off waivers July26 from Carolina.

        In short, Parker is a long shot to make the team.

        But his odds of being in a Bengals uniform and wearing No.20 in September are better than the odds Parker beat to make it this far.

        “I've been through tougher things,” he said Thursday at Bengals training camp at Georgetown College.

        The 22-year-old grew up in South Central Los Angeles surrounded by drug dealers and gang-bangers. Sirens and gunfire were the soundtrack of his boyhood.

        Parker never met his alcoholic father until he was in college. His alcoholic mother left young Sirr — whom she named because she wanted him treated with respect — and came back years later long enough to drop off another son and leave again. Sirr was the father his little brother never had. Sirr was an honor-roll student and homecoming king at Locke High School, earned a college football scholarship and became a star at Texas A&M.

        This really is the stuff of Hollywood.

        Showtime is in the second week of filming Sirr, a movie about Parker's life and escape from the mean streets of one of the country's meanest neighborhoods. The only thing he had to eat for breakfast most days was a Popsicle.

        “It's an honor to have something like that done about you, but under those circumstances, nobody really would want that kind of story done,” Parker said. “I've had to overcome some difficulties in my life, as have other players on this team, I'm sure. I guess it's a chance to show the world football players go through things just like regular people do.”

        Director Robert Munic wrote the screenplay for Sirr after reading a 1995 profile of Parker in the Los Angeles Times.

        Filming will continue through Sept.7 in Toronto. Kente Scott (The Klumps) plays young Sirr. Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile) is Coach Griffin, a composite character based on Parker's junior high and high school football coaches who guided Parker through his teen-age years.

        “It's showing that no matter what you come from, there's always a chance you can make it to something you want to do,” Parker said.

        He never let his environment derail him from achievement. Even as his high school team was going 0-9, Parker rushed for 1,129 yards and scored 19 touchdowns his senior year.

        And even though he was a child himself, Sirr did his best to take care of his brother, Donyea, who's now 10 and living with an aunt in Houston. So though Parker was recruited by Washington, Arizona, Notre Dame and UCLA, he chose A&M because College Station, Texas, is a lot closer to Houston and Donyea than South Bend, Ind.

        Parker is best known for catching the winning touchdown in A&M's double-over time victory in the 1998 Big 12 championship game that ended Kansas State's perfect season.

        But Parker doesn't want to talk about his football glory days. He's more interested in discussing his family.

        “He's supposed to come and stay with me when I get my own house in Houston,” Parker said of his little brother. “I want him to be with me in the offseasons.”

        Parker is more the boy's father than a brother.

        “Kids are innocent. They don't ask to be here,” Parker said. “The situations they're placed in aren't their fault. I have to do what I can to take care of him. Those were the type of morals I was raised with by my grandmother.”

        Parker also has a daughter, Alashea, who's 4, and a 6-month-old son.

        He wants to be the type of father his father wasn't. Responsible. That's why Parker would short-circuit his dream of playing football to take care of his children.

        “My main goal has always been to play in the NFL,” he said. “But if that doesn't happen, I realize there is life after football.”

        Parker is a semester from getting his degree in agriculture development at Texas A&M.

        “It's a business degree,” he said. “More than likely, I'll work with kids. That's always been my thing.

        “I can't be one of those players who sits up here and tries and tries and tries and it never happens. I have kids to feed. I just can't think of myself any more.”

        Responsibility to his job is keeping Parker from going to Toronto for a day of shooting promotional photos for the film. He also has to get back to Charlotte, N.C., to pack his household there. He had lived there a year. He spent all 16 games of the 1999 season as a receiver on the Panthers' practice squad.

        Whether it's in Los Angel es, Charlotte, Houston or Cincinnati, Parker hopes the film about his life will make people look differently at children who grow up in poverty. If his story inspires another kid, that's even better.

        “You can easily view the circumstances in South Central L.A. as excuses, or no one will look down on you if you come out a certain way,” Parker said. “I just want to let people know there are good kids in South Central, in all of Los Angeles, in deprived neighborhoods all over the country who are determined to succeed.”

        His secret? He never felt sorry for himself.

        “I just looked at growing up in South Central as something I had to do,” Parker said, “rather than something that was too hard.”

        Same as his shot at making the Bengals.

        “Whether it's running back, receiver, cornerback, I'm going to give 100 percent,” Parker said.

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