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After winning the Super Bowl and breaking the franchise record for most receiving yards in a single season, New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz has gone on to have an eventful offseason. Although he turned down a spot on ABC's Dancing With the Stars, Cruz has written a book, created a clothing line, and made several public appearances throughout the country. However, the team's breakout star doesn't believe that his off the field interests will affect his on the field performance.
“None of this stuff is going to hinder what I do on the field. It’s just stuff that comes along with what I always wanted to be. It was always my dream to be shooting commercials and photo shoots," Cruz said.
As an undrafted free agent out of UMass, it had to have been hard for Victor Cruz to imagine he would ever garner the amount of success and media attention that he experiences today. Cruz was kicked out of UMass twice in one year for academic reasons, and didn't see significant playing time on the football team until his junior season. However, once he made it to the NFL, Cruz began to turn heads immediately, which cumulated in his record setting campaign in 2011.
This offseason, Cruz has been tirelessly promoting his new book entitled "Out of the Blue." It's a memoir about his life and the journey he took from the rough Fourth Ward in Paterson,NJ all the way to NFL stardom. However, Cruz has also been seen doing photo shoots for Calvin Klein, shooting commercials, and attending the ESPY's in Los Angeles.
Although countless athletes have endorsements that take up significant amounts of time, one has to wonder whether all of the new off field distractions will take away from Cruz' ability to prepare for the upcoming season.
For some players, such as Kevin Jones (Detroit Lions), Derek Anderson (Cleveland Browns), and Peyton Hillis (Cleveland Browns), their initial success was too much for them handle off the field, and may have been a factor in their lack of production the next season. That being said, Victor Cruz isn't worried about any of that.
“I just did things that I always dreamed of doing. As far as on the field stuff, that’s going to take care of itself. I haven’t gotten Hollywood at all,” he added.
While all Giants' fans hope that the above statement is true, most would probably tell you that they wish Cruz would at least publicly portray himself as one who is getting ready for the upcoming football season, and less as one who is getting ready to release a book.
In his second season, the book on Cruz is out (pun intended) and after having a full offseason to watch his tape, opposing defenses are going to have a better idea of how to contain him. With hard work and dedication, he is more than capable on improving on his performance from last season. However, let's hope his off the field interests are not going to get in the way of that.
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1st!!! Awwwwww yeah
****. Once you start these things they spread like the plague. You’ve got only yourself to blame, Dan.
Yeah, this is tough to stomach. One year on IR … followed by one great breakout season … and now he feels the need to tell us he’s not ‘gone Hollywood’.
Every Giants fan loves this guy … myself included … but I’m definitely not liking his off-season … not liking it one bit.
He surprised a lot of people. Did a lot of great things. But all this publicity … the book, the clothes, the media suck-fest … it has prima donna written all over it. All those pursuits are fine … AFTER you’ve taken care of your career and established yourself.
Let’s hope he’s right … that he has done the prep … put in the work … and is focused on football. Because he’s going to be a marked man this year. Teams are going to game-plan him. And he better be ready.
The fact he even has to say he hasnt gone Hollywood is an issue. He is only entering his second full season in the league. As good as he is, he needs to keep his head down and get ready for the football rather than book signings.
The NFL is littered with players who got caught up in the glitz … and never realized their potential. No one is seeking out Victor Cruz because of his keen fashion sense … or his musical acumen. They’re not funding a book deal because his life is so incredibly interesting. All the good things coming his way are due to the Giants putting him in a position to catch that football when Eli throws it. Take that away and the phone stops ringing. I hope someone reminds him of this every freakin’ day.
He only “feels the need” to say it because the media keeps hyping this meme. I have yet to hear anything from the coaches or the players to suggest Cruz isn’t working hard.
With all due respect, this topic has gotten far too much virtual ink. Raise your hand if you think Victor Cruz actually wrote his book? I’m willing to bet he did some interviews with a ghost writer hired by the publishing company who then trotted off to write a coherent and gripping narrative. At most, you’re talking 1-2 days worth of interviewing and maybe several phone calls to fill in some gaps. Is Cruz a fashion designer? I’ve caught enough glimpses of my wife’s reality shows to gather that most celebs who “start a clothing line” merely give input as to the styles they like and then await as the designers come back with the “Victor Cruz Line” for him to say yay or nay to. Hardly time consuming.
Injuries have derailed Kevin Jones. Derek Anderson? Don’t recall him reeling in all these opportunities after his one good year in Cleveland. Peyton Hillis is just a basket case, I hardly see the comparison here.
This kind of article irritates me to no end. Eli has plenty of endorsements and charity events but is his dedication and preparation questioned? Peyton Manning has appeared on SNL and has shot like 5000 commercials. Tom Brady just wrapped up his 2645th GQ shoot but nobody will say he isn’t preparing for the upcoming season.
Did Cruz show up to minicamp out of shape? Have there been grumblings from the coaching staff or players that he’s “gone Hollywood” and isn’t working hard? The man is playing for a big contract this year and he doesn’t strike me as being so dumb as to not realize that. I hate to play this card but I just can’t recall too many white athletes who’ve been questioned like this following a breakout year.
I’m not saying this kid isn’t going to play well this season. In fact, he will most likely remain a vital part of the offense. However, I think he needs to realize that he hasn’t made it in the NFL yet. Plenty of people have had one good NFL season and have never been heard from again. And to Eli, before this season there were fans calling for his head on a platter, along with Coughlin.
Straight off of Cruz’ facebook page. Does this not look time consuming to you?
BOOK LAUNCH IS TODAY!
o TODAY Tuesday July17/7:30pm: The Daily Show.
o TODAY Tuesday July 17/8-10pm: Book signing @ BookMark Shoppe 8415 3rd Ave./Brooklyn, NY 11209.
o TOMORROW Wednesday July 18/ 7-9am: Morning Joe (MSNBC).
o TOMORROW Wednesday July18/9-10am: Live with Kelly.
o TOMORROW Wednesday July 18/8-10pm: Book signing @ Long Island Barnes & Noble.600 Smith Haven Mall/Lake Grove, NY 11755.
o Thursday July 19/8-10pm: Book signing@ Bronx Barnes & Noble. 290 Baychester Ave.Bronx, NY 10475.
o Saturday July 21/12:30-3pm: Big Patterson Homecoming event @ Planet 301-Center City Mall (Upper Level) 301 Main St./Paterson, NJ 07505.
o Sunday July 23/12:30-3pm: Book signing @ Mendham Book- 84 E Main St #G Mendham, NJ 0794.
Not at all. Busy for lazy people. Successful people accomplish far more in a day than most regular people. Looking at that schedule I see plenty of time to train.
You’re looking at 14.5 hours out of 144 possible hours with this schedule. I’ll even throw in an extra 10 hours for travel time. That’s 24.5 hours over 6 days. let’s say he sleeps 8 hours every night. That’s another 48 hours. That leaves 71.5 hours over 6 days with which to train.
Thats 24.5 hours less than Nnandi Asomugha will have to train and get better. It’s 24.5 hours less than Morris Claiborne will have to train and get better. And its not like he’s just been making public appearances this week and thats it, the guy has been everywhere this offseason. Check out his facebook page and just scroll down a bit, all you’ll see is PR stuff.
That’s ridiculous and you know it. You can’t train 24/7. Did Cruz show up to mini-camp out of shape? Have coaches, players or the front office expressed concern over his work ethic?
Maybe I should have explained myself better. Thats 24.5 hours over 6 days. But this entire offseason he has been around a lot doing a lot of non-football related activities. So all that time adds up, and undoubtedly gives his opponents more time to train over the entire offseason. Maybe it makes a difference, maybe it doesn’t. But it in no way can help his team on the field, but it could possibly hurt it.
Again, nobody in the NFL trains 24/7. Nobody. You also presume that his opponents have no other non-football related activities themselves.
People were calling for Eli and Coughlin because the team missed the playoffs for 2 straight years and Eli was coming off a 25 pick season. Had nothing to do with their off-field activities.
By the way, opportunities like this are few and far between. I’m not going to crucify a guy or question his work ethic for cashing in on business opportunities when they come flowing like this. He could blow out his knee in training camp and be toast as a player. Then what? Until he shows otherwise and until I hear concern from the coaches or the players this should be a non-story.
I also think you are blowing this way out of proportion. Nobody is saying Cruz came into mini camp out of shape. Nobody is saying that he won’t be a great player this season.
All I’m saying is that it has happened to people before, where their off the field interests have effected their play on the field and they never realized their full potential. Not saying Cruz will or will not be one of these people, but it would be a shame if it happened.
So if he’s in shape that means he’s training. If nobody within the organization has expressed concern over his work ethic or focus what’s the point of this article? It’s one of many I’ve seen with this same meme. The underlying tone of any article like this is the suggestion that his off the field activities will somehow detract from his focus on the upcoming season. Your own assertion about Asamougha and Claiborne suggest you do think it will affect his play.
Do you really think someone from the New York Giants is going to come out publicly and criticize Victor Cruz for having too many off the field interests? I’ll go ahead and assume that if there were any internal rumblings, they would be kept way out of the public eye.
https://twitter.com/TeamVic/status/220952122722746370
He trains 3-4 times per week. Granted I have no idea what his workouts consist of, but I know people who train 6 times a week to play Division III football, let alone the NFL. Nobody ever said he isn’t focused on the game, but he is young and its easy to let it all get to your head when you taste stardom like he has. At the very least, this offseason is extremely different than last offseason for him (or any other offseason he has experienced), so his training regiment heading into this upcoming season is unproven as of now.
A lot of NFL’ers train twice a day, 5 or 6 days a week (NFL requires they take one day off per week).
They’ve expressed concern over Bennett. As a personal trainer I can tell you that training is about quality not quantity. If his workouts are intense enough and efficient enough he’ll be fine. I compete in ironman triathlons and with my busy schedule I have usually between 10-15 hours a week to prepare for a race. I make it work. He’s got top trainers at his disposal. The people you know, probably waste a lot of time. Division III isn’t noted for its strength and conditioning programs.
I’m pretty sure they expressed concerns over Bennett’s weight, not his off the field interests. Also, as good as Victor Cruz is, I don’t think he has access to some super secret workout formula that nobody knows about that allows him to workout 3-4 times per week and get the same results as someone who works out twice a day 5-6 times per week. Most, if not all, NFL players have access to the same top trainers as he has, so its not like Cruz can do less and get away with it. Can he get more out of 3-4 workouts than the average Joe gets out of 6, yeah I’m sure. But, in terms of other NFL players, he is on an equal playing field in that regard.
Expressing concern about Bennett’s weight is directly expressing concern over his off the field preparation. There is such a thing as overtraining. You said yourself you have no idea what his workouts consist of. He could be doing twice a day workouts 3-4 times per week. Let’s assume you’re right and nobody from the organization would dare say anything regarding Cruz. There were reporters there right? None of them reported Cruz as appearing to be out of shape or lacking in focus right?
We could go back and forth all day. Clearly you believe Cruz is not adequately preparing for the upcoming season, a contract year by the way. I think he’s fully capable of being prepared and will assume he will be until proven otherwise.
First off, I’m fairly certain that Cruz didn’t just come out and be like “Don’t worry guys. I’m not Hollywood.” Some reporter probably asked him if he had any concerns that his teammates would think he’s gone native, or if his work ethic will suffer because of all of these extracurricular activites. Nevertheless, I share the concern of everyone about whether this guy can even approach what he did last season. We sure seem to be banking on him doing so, having let Mario go and focusing on young in-house talen as opposed to making any free agent acquisitions to fill that void.
Second, let me just say that I would love it if Dan’s panties were further twisted by the creation of a new G101 meme, like the “most interesting poster” bit, or the slogan contest that never actually came to fruition.
It takes amazing literary talent to write a book. Anything you see coming from anyone except a professional writer is bogus. Generals, politicians, Hillary Clinton, Bill O’Reilly … they’re all fakes. Generic garbage turned out by staff writers working for the major publishing houses. A microcosm of modern society where pink slime and propaganda rule the day.
Liberalgiant=Jared=Krow ???
Who gives a f*ck about the training regiments of Asomougha (who has been trying to break into Hollywood as an actor for several years, with various movie and TV roles) or a rookie cornerback in Dallas? How is that somehow a knock against Cruz?
I mean you could pick any one of a multitude of players if you don’t like those examples.
Speaking of training regimens here’s Vernon Davis:
Specifically looking at your current workouts, how many days a week are you in the gym and what types of body-part split do you use? (Full body, upper/lower, etc).
Davis: “I usually work out three days a week — Monday, Wednesday and Friday — focusing on mostly upper-body work. I incorporate resistance bands quite frequently, which I feel has gotten me really good results.”
“The only cardio I typically do is the running that’s involved with my football practices. It’s more than enough to get me into the shape I want to be in.”
http://www.nflplayerworkouts.com/vernon-davis
Larry Fitzgerald:
4 days/week cardio and weight training- Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri
Wed – 2 mile run/ recovery day
Sat and Sun he’s off
But yeah, he’s doing 2-a-days 5-6 times a week
http://www.muscleprodigy.com/larry-fitzgerald-workouts-arcl-1232.html
That’s especially interesting since I recently saw a tweet (I believe from Jacobs) that specified the NFL demands players take Tuesdays off.
But yeah, I said most NFL’ers anyway. Not all.
You’re taking a pretty extreme amount of offense to this debate. Fact is, most players work out 6 days a week, and many of those split it into 2 a days (others combine both workouts into one longer workout).
Pretty sure our former writer, Kyle, even works out with some of the Giants and can verify this.
Frankly, I’m tickled pink that our biggest worry with Cruz is whether or not he has “gone Hollywood.”
Especially when you consider the alternative:
Dez Bryant was arrested on Monday for a Class A Misdemeanor (assault injury, family violence) and released on bond of $1,500 after a warrant was issued for him in the city of DeSoto, Texas. The warrant was issued after his mother, Angela Bryant, called 9-1-1 on July 14th to report an attack from her son on the same day.
…Angela Bryant complained of pain in her wrists, hands and arms. The officers witnessed swelling in these areas and took Ms. Bryant into the station to provide a written statement. In that, Ms. Bryant stated that the injuries occurred after Dez grabbed her and she was trying to pull away. According to Ms. Bryant, Dez struck her repeatedly on her wrists and hands. She also had bruising on her arms and stated that she was sore in the chest from Dez pushing her.
From this information, the police issued a warrant for Bryant’s arrest on Monday and he turned himself into the authorities.
http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2012/7/17/3164974/cowboys-dez-bryant-arrest-warrant-911-call-released
Keep on plugging that book, Victor. It’s all good!
Norm and Eric S. hit it on the head, this is a non issue. And as seen with Dez Bryant, we should all be pleased the biggest worry fans have with Victor is endeavors that don’t involve him training 6 days a week.
1. This is the NFL’s offseason. Late June- Late July. Thats it. Many players and coaches take this time to get away from football for a bit.
2. It’s not like he has shown up for anything out of shape or injured. Like the former player who wore #80 and showed up hobbling every year on the first day of training camp. The same player who’s heavy drinking and partying were never questioned by fans until we won a SB without him.
3. I got killed for bringing up the race thing in regards to Herzlich and people’s delusional excitement for him but……..didn’t Eli just spend a morning giving out Coffee at Dunkin Doughnuts? Didn’t he just sign a very lucrative contract to endorse them, which was met by an article on this site praising him and his brother for capitalizing on endorsements? Didn’t he spend several weeks preparing for SNL? Which this website covered without a bit of negativity?
4. Dan, if writers really left this site because the readers were treating them bad then they never really wanted to write in the first place. Read any internet blog and the commenters make all of us on g101 look like gentlemen, including myself, which is not easy to do. I’m sure you’ve read Grazianos blog on ESPN (you obviously do, he links G101 on occasion) and have seen how nasty those commenters are. Or check out a Yahoo article and see how nasty those people can be. Besides this site is made by the comments section. No one actually comes on here to read the articles. Do they?