Last year, football's graduating class had two players make NFL rosters –– Dennis Norman '01 and Ross Tucker '01.
This year's best hope to make it to the big leagues plays what is quite possibly the least desired job on the field –– kicker.
Senior Taylor Northrop has had a stellar football career at Princeton. He has had a couple of rough days, but the good ones far outnumber the bad. His accomplishments have earned him pre-season All-America status and set him en route to breaking the Ivy record for career field goals.
Northrop has not always kicked for the football team, though. He grew up on the pitch.
"I played soccer my whole life," Northrop said. "Really, that was my dominant sport. During my junior year of high school, I started playing football."
He played defense throughout his early years, a position of strength and intimidation, and also one in which the players are expected to have strong legs so that they can easily clear the ball out of their own end. Northrop was no exception to the rule.
"I took the goal kicks since I was 10 and most of the free kicks after that," Northrop said. "I think I scored from my own half three times during junior high. It was at that age where everyone was just starting to hit their growth spurts, and I could often just catch them by surprise.
"[Closer] free kicks were a lot of fun. I'd often just blast the first ball in the wall to scare them. After that, they'd get out of the way and the ball would go to the back of the net."
Not only did he have a strong leg suited to decapitate, but he also possessed a solid touch on the ball. The combination of those two skills carried him to England over the course of two summers so that he could practice as an apprentice and be seen by European coaches.
"When I was 13, I spent the summer with Crew Alexander FC in England, which is a Division II team," Northrop said. "When I was 14, I spent the summer with Leyton Orient which is a Division III team. I would always wake up in the morning, practice until 12 or 2 and then clean up for the team's game after that. If there wasn't a game, I could just go into London until 1 or 2 a.m."
It was always his childhood dream to play in the English Premiership, perhaps with Manchester United or another club at the top of the table, but something kept him from that.
"I'm not very fast," Northrop said. "That's why I never made it in soccer. If I had speed, I probably would have never come back from England. I've been slow my whole life. I just stayed on my heels."
Thus, he turned to his new love –– football.
"Then, it was soccer that I wanted to do," Northrop said. "Now, it's to kick the football."
His statistics from the last three years speak for themselves. As of now, he is second on the all-time Princeton field goal list, just three behind record-holder Alex Sierk '99. He has made eight of nine field goals over the first four games this season. If he is able to make that many over the last five, he will claim the Ivy record of 41 field goals in a career.
He has not always been the consistent kicker he is now, though.
"My worst experience in football is missing the two extra points against Yale my sophomore year," Northropsaid. "It was tough to let the team down like that."
Indeed, that season, he was just 11-16 on extra points despite being perfect on seven field goal attempts from 40 yards or more.
"Those statistics really made me look at what I was doing and focus on what I was doing wrong."
Last season, he was 24-25 on extra points — almost perfect, but not quite. The one he missed, a potential game-tying kick at the end of regulation at Cornell, is the only one people remember. This illustrates why being a kicker is the least-coveted position on the field. So far this season, though, he has not missed.
And if he keeps up the success, he might even be able to play football in the NFL after his final game against Dartmouth, something he certainly wants to do.
"I'd love to continue to kick field goals after college," Northrop said. "I'll kick anywhere. I'll kick in Antarctica with my shoes off."
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