Picture Day

The first Princeton football player TigerBlog saw as he walked out to the football stadium yesterday was defensive lineman Samuel Wright.

TB's first thought was that he would not like to be tackled by Sam Wright. Then he briefly thought "hey, maybe it would be interesting to see what that was like" before he went back to "no, no way."

There's a reasonably good chance that at this time next year, Sam Wright will be in an NFL training camp. Yesterday, he was in the Powers Field at Princeton Stadium visiting locker room, which was being used for picture day for football.

Here's everything you need to know about picture day: It never goes as smoothly as you imagine. In some ways it's like trying to estimate how long it takes to get from Princeton to Long Island. You always need to add some time to the drive.

There were lines here and there for varying photo and video stations. Some were jacket and tie. Some were uniforms. It's a bit messy. 

At the same time, it's also a lot of fun. There were hugs and handshakes everywhere for teammates who were returning from the summer, or even longer for those who were not enrolled last year. 

For freshmen, there were even introductions as they met for the first time.

There were players who looked a lot bigger than they did the last time TB saw them. There were players with different haircuts. They were all in masks, which made it hard to recognize some of them anyway.

And there were players who ... didn't know how to tie a tie. TB has gone through this for years with men's lacrosse players too.

Some of the football players from yesterday do now, after TB taught them. Hey, it's an important life skill. Hopefully they'll always remember who taught them to tie a tie when they are at their corporate jobs one day. 

It's not easy to teach someone to tie a tie, since you're facing the person and everything is mirror-imaged. If TB tried to teach they reaching over them, well, they were a little too big for him to do that.

At one point his job was to keep the corridor clear and have those waiting in line for their jacket and tie shots to stand in the tunnel, letting one or two in after one or two came out of the room. TB felt like a bouncer, though in fairness if he was going to be an actual bouncer, he'd probably do so in a place that had much smaller people going in and out.

The picture day preceded the start of football practice. The season opener is four weeks from tomorrow, when the Tigers will be at Lehigh. 

Between now and then, Princeton's other fall teams will all have had their seasons begin. It's that time of year again, and it's even more special this time around, given that a year ago at this time there were no fall sports and nobody on campus.

It feels like it usually does at this time of year, as the campus awakens from the summer months. The arrival of the fall athletes has always been a reminder for TB of why he has stayed in this business all these years, as the opportunity to be a part of that has always been such a special thing for TB and everyone who works in college athletics.

After last year, it's not something will ever take for granted again. 

The football pictures yesterday were followed by pictures for women's soccer and women's volleyball. For TigerBlog, they're more than just a chance to take care of some business and get the photos and video needed for the webpage and other places.

It's that, but what he saw yesterday was more about what is meant by the student-athlete experience. It's not just about the games. It's about the moments away from the games, when friendships are made and renewed and then last forever. 

It's possible, TB supposes, that the guys he showed how to tie their ties yesterday will joke about that 50 or 60 years from now, when one of them still can't do it well. What TB saw yesterday was all a big part of what it means to be on a team at Princeton, and it was again so special to see.