This is new for Victor Cruz, his role as a team captain, his saying he wants the ball thrown his way more often, the boos he heard after dropping passes last Sunday against the Cardinals.
And so, Cruz admits he’s learning as he goes along.
“It takes a lot of resiliency and a lot of strength emotionally to withhold some of the things you feel and some of the things you want to feel to be able to translate to your team in private, as opposed to out loud where people can see and make judgments on,” Cruz said Wednesday. “[You] have to talk to your team in private, which is what I have to learn to do.”
This is not much of a big deal, and coach Tom Coughlin wasn’t upset when Cruz last week said he and Rueben Randle should be targeted more frequently by Eli Manning.
Coughlin took it as Cruz wanting to help as much as possible, but after the rough outing and some rare beating up by the fans for his two dropped passes, Cruz is in the spotlight and Coughlin wanted to make sure everything was copacetic.
That’s why the veteran head coach recently summoned Cruz for a private chat.
“It was more or less a conversation about…Victor’s a captain now, it’s not just his group, but I believe his group can and should play better and help,” Coughlin said. “We’re not exactly scoring any points, we need people to be in that position, and he agreed with me and he’s working towards doing something about that.”
Cruz did not help himself after the loss to the Cardinals. When asked about the rough reception from the fans, he stated, “I could care less.”
He meant to convey that he does not allow outside distractions to bother him, but it came off as a bit callous.
He was not castigated for his plea for more attention from Manning in the passing game, but it was brought up after he failed to deliver in the defeat.
“You guys just did a good job of transferring my words over to saying that I wanted the damn ball and things like that,” said Cruz, who added he has no regrets about the remark.
As one of five team captains, Cruz is in an unaccustomed role with an extremely young group of receivers, and he knows they look to him for leadership.
“I think they look for it on the field as well as off to keep the composure,” he said. “If I am going crazy, I think they’ll kind of go crazy. If I am saying negative things, for example, then they are going to say negative things. I have to keep a level head and transfer that positive energy to everyone else.”
He also has to do something else.
“I just have to go out there and catch the football,” Cruz said. “That is my job. That is pretty much all I have to do. I do not pay attention to any of the outside things or any of the negative things that go out there. I don’t look at any of that stuff. I live my life and move on.”