What is the term for an athlete's headshot?

Question

I've heard the term before. And I've looked it up in a number of ways.

I'm talking about the athlete's head shot that appears alongside his stats if it is shown quickly. Not necessarily the animated ones they show on Monday Night Football. I'm talking more about still photos, very small ones. Ones that are typically used throughout a season, across a variety of media.

For example, at the start of an MLB season, if a player will now be playing with a new team, frequently they will show this "stock" photo on file from last year, and the new uniform/hat will be photoshopped onto it.

I've heard the term. It's certainly not 'stock'. The term 'media guide' comes to mind, but there has got to be a better term for it.

Answer 1

Headshot is a common term, actually, but the term you're probably looking for is publicity photo, or PR photo. See SABR's images page for example for use of both terms (Headshot and Publicity Photo). See Wikipedia's page on the use of publicity photos for more detail (as the term is not unique to sports).

Headshot is definitely common, if not more common than publicity photo as well. For example, on mlb.com's page for Hisashi Iwakuma, his headshot is called, indeed, a headshot in the html code:

<img alt="Hisashi Iwakuma" class="player-headshot" 
 src="http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/images/players/head_shot/547874.jpg" 
 data-src="http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/images/players/head_shot/547874">