Pressure Is A Privilege

Tonight is the start of a two-day Princeton-Rutgers soccer carnival on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium.

It starts this evening at 7, when the women's teams play. Tomorrow night, also at 7, it'll be the men's teams. 

As you know from a few weeks ago, Princeton is 551-334-28 all-time against Rutgers in all sports. This year the Princeton women are 2-0, while the Rutgers women are 2-1-1. The Princeton men will be playing their first game, and Rutgers is 0-1-1.

All of this will happen not that far from Queens, which is the site of the U.S. Open tennis championships, which started this week. The main character so far is someone who isn't even playing.

That would be Billie Jean King, who gave so much of her career to the advancement of women's tennis as a whole. If you've been watching the matches, you've seen that the USTA is proudly commemorating that this is the 50th anniversary of equal pay for women's players at the Open.

King, of course, is the person most responsible for that, and for pretty much every advancement that current women athletes enjoy. She is most deserving of the commercial that celebrates her career that has been playing on the telecasts.

If you look closely, you can see the "Pressure Is A Privilege" sign that flashes. When TigerBlog saw that, he was instantly reminded of last fall, when King met with the Princeton field hockey team prior to a game. 

During her talk, she emphasized those words, "Pressure Is A Privilege," which was basically the keystone of her message. That, and her other favorite saying: "Champions Adjust."

The start of the U.S. Open always coincides with the end of the summer and the beginning of the NFL season. In fact, the tournament ends on the opening Sunday of the NFL season, which in this case is a week from Sunday.

As TB has been saying, this past Tuesday was the deadline for NFL teams to cut their rosters down to 53. In years past, teams had a first cut and a second cut, but this year teams went from 90 to 53 in one shot. 

For Princeton football, there were four players in training camps this summer, two of whom made active rosters and two of whom were cut. The two who made their teams were Andrei Iosivas of Cincinnati, who was a total lock after the summer he's had, and Jesper Horsted, who battled through injuries to make the Las Vegas roster. 

The raves for Iosivas continue to pour in, including this from a Sports Illustrated story:

All in all, Iosivas oozes natural ability as a receiver. His athleticism and body control are top notch and together make for a deadly combination. While he’s not yet fully developed as a receiver, he’s further along than many expected him to be at this stage in his career. 

As TB said the other day, it'll be very interesting to see how the Bengals use him on game days. 

The two who were not as fortunate were Stephen Carlson and Henry Byrd. There's still hope, though, as the cuts do not mean the end of roster movement. Far from it.

First of all, there is the waiver period, when teams can sign players other team's released. Of course, if you sign someone, then you have to release someone else. TB guesses this is worse than getting cut Tuesday; you think you've made it, and suddenly you haven't.

There is also the practice squad. What are the rules for the practice squad, which is exactly what you'd think it would? Teams can have as many as 16 practice squad players, of which 10 have to be players with less than two years of service. The others can be veterans of any tenure.

How much do they make? The first group makes $12,000 per week. The second group makes between $16,100 and $20,600 per week. More than that, it also keeps you in the game.

Players on practice squads can be signed by other teams to their active rosters. There are also rules about moving players up and down between active rosters and practice squads and signing players off the practice squad of your next opponent, simply to get information.

Carlson was signed to the Bears' practice squad the minute the signing period opened. Byrd was not signed to the Broncos' practice squad but he seems likely to be picked up by another team.