When Shawn Andrews was at the Indianapolis scouting combine before being drafted, an NFL general manager gave the rookies-to-be a heads up about training camp.
"He said, 'For some of you training camp is going to be the hardest thing you've been through,' " Andrews recalled last month.
With that warning, never could the Eagles tackle have figured the lasting memory of his first trip to training camp five years ago would be that of body wash.
Yes, body wash.
As is often the ritual in the NFL, the rookies defer to the veterans during training camp. Five years ago, Andrews and his fellow rookie offensive linemen were asked to run an errand for their elders.
"They had us go out and buy soap - like body wash - for the veterans," Andrews said. "I don't know if they did it last year. Of course, I wasn't there. But we had to go to CVS."
That's about as much hazing as you'll get at an Andy Reid-run training camp. Essentially, the only hazing this year's crop of freshmen will see when camp begins Sunday is the mist that encircles the Lehigh hills as Reid conducts another two-and-a-half-week spell in the summer sun.
Despite limits put into effect after the 2001 heatstroke death of Minnesota Vikings tackle Kory Stringer, the Eagles hold one of the more grueling camps around the league. And it's usually the rookies who are least prepared to handle the two-a-day practices.
"That first go-round - it kind of gets them," Reid said. "I have the veterans talk to them . . . I talk to them, their coaches talk to them, the coordinators talk to them. So they're getting hit with it. But until you've done it, you don't quite get the full gist of it. It's a lot easier than it used to be. We used to go three-a-days."
For most of this year's rookies - interviewed last month during a minicamp - the thought of their first camp did not incite fear as much as it did anxiousness.
"I'm anxious, but I'm also not too worried about it," wide receiver Jeremy Maclin said. "At the end of the day, it's still football. Once you know what you're doing, you just go out there and play football."
Maclin, drafted No. 19 overall, is the only Eagles rookie unsigned. Tight end Cornelius Ingram is one of eight draftees signed and primed to don the pads and start cracking. Ingram, who missed his senior season last year at Florida, had not participated in full-contact drills since the spring of 2008.
"It'll be highly anticipated for me because I tore my [anterior cruciate ligament] the second day of training camp last year," he said. "I wasn't even in pads. . . . But I know it'll be tough. You're away from everybody. You're isolated."
The Eagles, like some other NFL teams, bunker away from home to limit the distractions. Still, the seclusion has it drawbacks.
"I had those 'I-don't-want-to-do-this, is-this-really-what-I-want-to-do days?' " said Andrews, who missed last year's camp as he dealt with depression. "But at the same time, when you have those dog days you have to play mind games with yourself. You got to find a way to get through it."
Reid eases the load by keeping hazing to a minimum. The practice of rookies being taped to goalposts, getting doused with ice water, and having their eyebrows shaved is not found in Bethlehem, Pa.
"That still goes on," Reid said of the long-standing NFL tradition. "I'm not big on hazing. Those rookies, maybe today more than any time, need to fit in and contribute. The only thing I do with the veterans is if one of the older guys is last in line getting taped, he can become first in line. That type of thing."
There are too many other preoccupations - like studying the playbook, learning your responsibilities, adjusting to the speed and practicing under the watchful eyes of 10,000 Eagles fans.
"Creating a big class distinction between how long you been here isn't going to help us win more games," third-year linebacker Stewart Bradley said. "Andy does a good job of making a strong point about not hazing the guys. There's still a hierarchy that exists. There's still a rookie dinner. There are still things you have to do as a rookie. But they're never derogatory, and they're never going to alienate you from the group."
Like purchasing body wash?
"It was odd," Andrews said of his O-line initiation. "But for me, my first training camp ended up being . . . cool."
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