New York Giants: Victor Cruz Prepared for Emotional Return to Philadelphia
New York Giants receiver Victor Cruz makes his first trip to Lincoln Financial Field Thursday, the site of his career-threatening knee injury in 2014.
New York Giants receiver Victor Cruz grimaced when he was asked what he remembered most about the night of Oct. 12, 2014.
“Pain,” he said. “A lot of pain.”
That night, a 27-0 Giants loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field, put the now 30-year-old Cruz on a journey like none other in his life. It all went down on a fourth-and-3 with 9:39 left in the third quarter, Cruz went to the end zone on a pass only to have his leg buckle under him.
He immediately grabbed his knee, screaming as the ball fell incomplete. The image of an inconsolable Cruz riding on the back of a cart with Giants team trainer Byron Hansen trying to console him as teammates reached out to pat him on the back is, to this day, one of the most powerful images in recent Giants history.
41 games and two injured reserve designations later (including the torn patellar tendon injury suffered that night and then a calf ailment that washed out his 2015 comeback attempt), Cruz is set to make his first return to that very same field where many thought he might have played his final game.
“It feels the same,” Cruz said when asked what he’s feeling ahead of the Giants Thursday night primetime game at Lincoln Financial Field. “It kind of just feels like another game. Obviously, it won’t be until I get there and I start to walk out on to the field when I’ll start to feel certain emotions and such, but it just feels like another game, man.”
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Except it’s not just another game. Not only is this a chance for Cruz to gain a sort of closure by playing in the very same field that nearly claimed his career, it’s a chance for him in his first season back since that injury to help the Giants clinch their first playoff berth since the 2011 season.
“No matter where it is, for a team to clinch a playoff spot that hasn’t been there in a few years, it’s definitely special for us so we just want to make sure we handle our business,” Cruz said.
Although Cruz hasn’t had the type of season statistically he once used to enjoy with regularity before that fateful night—this year he has just 29 catches for 495 yards and one touchdown, the score coming way back in Week 1—he is thankful to have had the opportunity to make a triumphant return to that venue as an active player where, he said, he will pay a special visit to the right corner of that end zone where his screams of pain likely still echo in the stadium’s infrastructure.
“I will, I don’t think I need to, but I will to just kind of reflect on that moment and on my feelings, and then to wash my hands of it,” Cruz said.
“That right corner of the end zone is the place where it all kind of restarted for me. So obviously, it will be kind of emotional and bring back some memories both good and bad, but to be back out there, I’m excited for it. I’m excited to make some new memories and some new thoughts to think about.”
Those new thoughts include getting through the game which, if the Giants win, will put them one step closer toward their goal of winning a Super Bowl.
Cruz, who has $9.4 million cap number in 2017, is not a lock to return to the Giants next year. That’s especially the case considering his reduced role int he Giants offense,
He doesn’t know how the game Thursday is going to unfold. But like most people, he has his dreams and his hopes, and those center around him contributing to a Giants victory. Not only would a win on Thursday assure them of a postseason berth, it would also give the Giants their first season sweep of both the Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys since the 2000 season.
To that end, Cruz is viewing Thursday night as one of the most important games of his life.
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“To a certain degree just to fight over that hump and to get through that game and to hopefully play well through that game and catch as couple of balls and get into the end zone one time in that game it would be icing on the cake on a year that’s been so fruitful for me,” he said. “Just to be able to come back to play and be on a team that got 10 wins and control our own destiny to the playoffs.
“It’s just a moment that you want to be a part of and I’m just happy that for me individually and this team has been kind of a year come true.”