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Iowa football star Tristan Wirfs spent Week 1 grilling and picking up trash
By Andrew Kulha
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Iowa offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs will most likely play NFL football, like many Hawkeye offensive lineman before him.
And that’s what makes it surprising that Wirfs, who checks in at 6-foot-5, 320 pound at just 19-years old, spent Week 1 of the college football season grilling with an 83-year-old neighbor. This was after he took part in some team-mandated community service, picking up trash after FryFest.
That’s not the typical Saturday for a college football star, but it was Wirfs’ in Week 1 as he took the punishment for the one-game suspension he was required to serve after an OWI arrest over the summer.
Per team policy, Wirfs was suspended for one game — Iowa’s 33-7 win over NIU — and Mark Emmert of Hawk Central detailed some of the offensive lineman’s “adventures” while serving his punishment.
That included watching football and hanging out with his neighbor, who’s an older gentleman who has apparently be-friended some of the Hawkeyes in the past.
“Ike Boettger, Bo Bower and Josey Jewell used to live in that house that we live in now. They became acquaintances with him,” Wirfs said Tuesday, referencing three former Hawkeye players. “He came over and introduced himself the first day that we moved in. He’s really cool.”
Wirfs grilled with Mr. Tucker, but as mentioned, he also had to pick up trash after a huge festival in celebration of the Hawkeyes’ 2018-19 season starting.
That had to have hurt, because he could have been running out of the tunnel with his friends and teammates at Kinnick Stadium instead. Per Emmert’s story, though, the big offensive tackle took the punishment in stride.
“It wasn’t bad,” he said. “It’s just trying to make you a better person. You made a mistake, you’ve got to pay for it.”
Wirfs was back on the field and dominating for the Hawkeyes in Iowa’s Week 2 win over Iowa State. A sophomore, he was the first true freshman to ever start at offensive tackle in the Kirk Ferentz-era of Iowa football.
Andrew covers the B1G on Saturday Tradition.