At training camp, media availability is held outside the campus cafeteria where the players eat their three meals a day. Each day at lunchtime, players park their cars in front and must first run the gauntlet of reporters and cameras before they can eat.
Some are picked off for exclusives; the bigger names are brought to the podium for interviews.
For undrafted rookies, you get to take the E-ZPass lane in.
For the first week of camp, David Douglas usually moseyed in unbothered. But Thursday afternoon was a different case for the wide receiver out of Arizona.
The day before, Tom Coughlin mentioned Douglas' name during his post-practice press conference.
"David Douglas has had a heck of a preseason, for four practices and a half hour," were Coughlin's exact words, referring to camp so far and Wednesday's rain-shortened practice that was moved into the basketball gym.
WATCH COACH TOM COUGHLIN ON DOUGLAS' IMPRESSIVE START >>
That was enough to warrant a media scrum around the 23-year-old. He had no idea it was coming.
"To be honest, I didn't even know that until I came here today," Douglas said of Coughlin mentioning him. "A lot of being a rookie is just learning and taking it one day at a time and giving it your all at practice."
And that's exactly what he's done, getting his name out there a week into camp where every play in practice gets magnified.
"You have to take advantage of every rep that you get in," he continued. "When you're not one of the first or second string guys you've definitely got to take advantage of the reps that you get in there but you've just got to take it one rep at a time. You can't look too far ahead. You've just got to go out there and make the most of it every time you get in."
Douglas (6-1, 205 pounds) racked up 151 catches for 1,542 yards as a Wildcat and had options to sign elsewhere, ultimately choosing the defending champs.
"Obviously, they're a great team and a great organization," Douglas said. "I've always heard great things about Coach Coughlin and about [the Giants] building up young players. You see players like Victor Cruz that came up and got a shot while he was an undrafted free agent, and you've seen the things that he was able to do. The Giants do things the right way and it was a great opportunity to come here."
