In fact, as TigerBlog thinks is the case, he's way more afraid of humans than humans are afraid of him. On the other hand ... there are tons of these guys who are running around the Princeton area these days.
TB found this on an animal control website:
Just because you rarely see an animal like a fox does not make that
animal dangerous or malevolent, and just because the animal has teeth
and eats other animals does not make it dangerous to people. Most wild
animals couldn't care less about humans. If they've invaded our space,
it is because we first invaded theirs. Wild animals are just as much a
part of this world as we are, and they will generally leave us alone as
long as we leave them alone.
This makes it seem like TigerBlog owes the fox an apology. He does look vicious though, doesn't he (the fox, not TB).
And even knowing that the fox isn't really posing a threat, TB isn't sure what he would have done had this guy started charging at him. He's guessing he would have simply turned and sprinted the other way but probably wouldn't have been able to outrun the fox. And reasoning with the fox probably wouldn't have been an option.
It's better that he didn't have to find out.
That's his fox story for today. Hey, he needed something to segue away from the Olympic Games.
The end of the Games bring with them the coming start of a new academic and athletic year at Princeton. The first game of 2024-25 will be a women's soccer home game against Miami (Fla.) on Aug. 24, which is, if TB is any good at math, only 10 days away.
The football season will begin Sept. 21 at Lehigh (kickoff at noon if you're planning to attend). The Ivy League's football media teleconference was held Monday, as all eight head coaches talked about the season to come.
The preseason poll was released previously, and it has Princeton tied for fourth with Dartmouth. Yale was No. 1, followed by Harvard and then Penn. Ivy football history is filled with preseason No. 6 teams who have won championships and preseason No. 1 teams who have finished below .500.
TigerBlog is one of the few remaining people around Ivy football who remember when the league had an actual "Media Day" in Connecticut each August. It was held either at Yale Golf Course or Lyman Orchards Golf Course, and it featured coaches, media, breakfast, box lunches and golf.
As TB thinks back to all his time here, there are quite a few archaic memories that used to be immediately circled on the Ivy athletic calendar that no longer exist.
For TigerBlog, Ivy football media day was one of those days. It actually presented him with his first unmissable deadline each year, since he had to have his media guide — also extinct — to the printer in time to get it back for the big day in Connecticut.
The media day usually followed an in-person Ivy League sports information meeting and then dinner for all those in athletic communications. It was two days of renewing friendships with those throughout the league, whether they be in communications or the media or the other coaches.
There's a great deal to be said about the modern way of presenting information. It's immediate. It goes directly to those who want to experience the content. You control the message. Your own creativity is challenged.
That all makes sense.
The cost of that, though, has been obvious — those relationships that TB was just mentioning. The closeness that existed among the people who work in Ivy athletic communications was much greater 20-30 years ago. The media numbers have obviously dwindled, and the daily or weekly interactions with a large media base no longer exists either.
TB remembers coming away from Ivy media day thinking that it was one of the first signs of the end of summer, and yet there would still be a few weeks until the first kickoff. He'd leave ready and charged up for another year.
He has that same feeling now that 2024-25 is on the way. It's why he's done it all these years.
It's just that progress has its downsides.
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