Couch Potato
Footballguy
I sent the following to my sons today. They don't follow football much, but sort of pay attention when an event is huge like the Super Bowl. I thought it would be good to let them in on the special Victor Cruz story.
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Sons,
I know you guys don't pay much attention to sports, but most everyone in the English speaking world knows the Super Bowl is next Sunday and I'm sure you will have / have had some exposure to it, and probably will watch it. And even if you don't have a rooting interest in either team now that the 49ers are out of it, there might be one guy whose story makes him well worth rooting for. His name is Victor Cruz.
Victor Cruz is a wide receiver for the New York Giants, the team that beat our 49ers last week. In that game he was the best receiver on the field, hauling in 10 catches for 142 yards (trust me, those are big numbers for one game). The previous week he had 5 catches for 74 yards in helping beat the defending Super Bowl champ Packers. And now he's in the Super Bowl. But that's where we are now. To be where he is now is quite improbable given where he had to come from to get here. Let's go back.
Cruz went to the University of Massachusetts (in itself interesting in that he'll be facing the NFL team from Massachusetts in the Super Bowl). UMass is well-known for a lot of things but major football talent is not one of them. They play in the lightly regarded Colonial Athletic Association, and quite frankly kids play there because they weren't considered good enough to get a scholarship from schools in a major conference. UMass has been playing football since 1879 but the only notable NFL player to ever come from there was a QB in the 1960s-80s named Greg Landry (he was a 1st round pick and had a long career, but he only made the Pro Bowl once and was never considered a great player). In fact, Cruz couldn't even crack the starting lineup at UMass until his Junior year, 2008. He really began to improve though, and those last two years of college were pretty good. He was named a first-team All-conference WR both years.
His numbers were good but not amazing, it was in a conference considered pretty weak, and his talent level still wasn't considered particularly special. Millions and millions of dollars are poured every year into college scouting and recruiting, and in the NFL scouting and draft process. One source I saw listed Cruz as the 73rd ranked WR coming out of college that year, not nearly good enough to be drafted by the NFL. So, when elite college kids got invitations to the Combine, Victor Cruz was not included. FYI The Combine is held in Indianapolis every year in February, a pre-NFL draft audition if you will, where most of the college players considered draft-worthy come from all over the country to perform all sorts of football drills, measurements, and tests.
And of course he was not drafted in 2010, not in 7 rounds and 255 picks, not among the 30 WRs taken that year. One team, though, saw something in him. Just enough to invite him to their training camp as an undrafted free agent. It was the NY Giants. And he impressed early. And he continued to impress. When pre-season games started, he still was with them. And then he REALLY impressed, in front of the football world, in a Monday night pre-season game on national TV. I saw that game and wow, he was like an acrobat out there on some of those catches. He caught 6 passes for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns that night, and everyone was asking 'WHO IS THIS KID?!" By the time pre-season ended he had finished 1st in the NFL in yards and TDs and was 2nd in catches. He made the team's regular season roster. Guys in fantasy leagues were scrambling to draft / pick up this unknown kid out of nowhere.
And then... he mostly sat on the bench as their #5 receiver, played very little in the first 3 games of the year, and had zero catches in those games. Worse, he got hurt and the team put him on Injured Reserve, ending his season with a thud after just 3 games. Fantasy players sooner or later dropped him and I think mostly forgot about him. In my 12 dynasty leagues (ones that keep players from season to season) he was still owned in just a couple of them when this year's pre-season began.
But things started to unfold this year. The Giants' receiver who had caught over 100 balls a couple years ago (Steve Smith), no longer under contract in 2011, surprisingly chose to go to another team rather than re-sign with the Giants. Another guy the team was high on (Ramses Barden) was coming along slowly from a previous injury. So Victor Cruz entered the 2011 season as the #4 WR and it looked like he was actually going to get a chance to play some. Then the #3 WR (Domenik Hixon) was injured in the 2nd game of the season and was lost for the year. As the #4 guy Cruz only had 2 catches and 17 yards in the first two games, but he was now the #3 guy and sure to play a lot in this team's style of offense.
In his first game as the #3 guy he broke out, and again looked like the Victor Cruz from that pre-season Monday night game the previous year. Near the end of the first quarter of the game, the QB threw him the ball, and BAM! 74 yard touchdown! Later in the game, trailing by two points in the 4th quarter, he again got the call. BAM! 28 yard touchdown! He finished with 3-110-2. And they won the game. The following week he was 6-98, and the week after that a huge 8-168-1. By now every fantasy league in the world had scooped him up although still technically just the #3 WR on his team. Cruz did not actually become the #2 guy until an injury befell Mario Manningham later in the season, but he was already outperforming Manningham. He began outperforming the #1 guy as well, though both had very very good seasons.
How good did Victor Cruz' season turn out to be, this nobody from nowhere-U that the college recruiting and pro draft experts all totally whiffed on? Despite not really seeing the field until week 3 and not being his team's #2 until mid-season, he finished 3rd among all WRs in the entire NFL in yardage with 1,569 (also 3rd in fantasy points), caught 82 balls, and had 9 touchdowns. This in his 2nd season (but really his first since he was on Injured Reserve virtually all of last year), a point in a career when most young WRs are still trying to figure out how to be marginally successful. Then he helped beat the Super Bowl champ Packers, then went 10-142 against the 49ers' league leading defense.
And now where is he?
Indianapolis, in that same stadium he wasn't good enough to be invited to for the Combine less than two years ago. To be one of the best players starting in the Super Bowl. Simply incredible.
Yeah, I know what player I'll be rooting for. Victor Cruz.
Love you guys.
Dad
-------------------
Sons,
I know you guys don't pay much attention to sports, but most everyone in the English speaking world knows the Super Bowl is next Sunday and I'm sure you will have / have had some exposure to it, and probably will watch it. And even if you don't have a rooting interest in either team now that the 49ers are out of it, there might be one guy whose story makes him well worth rooting for. His name is Victor Cruz.
Victor Cruz is a wide receiver for the New York Giants, the team that beat our 49ers last week. In that game he was the best receiver on the field, hauling in 10 catches for 142 yards (trust me, those are big numbers for one game). The previous week he had 5 catches for 74 yards in helping beat the defending Super Bowl champ Packers. And now he's in the Super Bowl. But that's where we are now. To be where he is now is quite improbable given where he had to come from to get here. Let's go back.
Cruz went to the University of Massachusetts (in itself interesting in that he'll be facing the NFL team from Massachusetts in the Super Bowl). UMass is well-known for a lot of things but major football talent is not one of them. They play in the lightly regarded Colonial Athletic Association, and quite frankly kids play there because they weren't considered good enough to get a scholarship from schools in a major conference. UMass has been playing football since 1879 but the only notable NFL player to ever come from there was a QB in the 1960s-80s named Greg Landry (he was a 1st round pick and had a long career, but he only made the Pro Bowl once and was never considered a great player). In fact, Cruz couldn't even crack the starting lineup at UMass until his Junior year, 2008. He really began to improve though, and those last two years of college were pretty good. He was named a first-team All-conference WR both years.
His numbers were good but not amazing, it was in a conference considered pretty weak, and his talent level still wasn't considered particularly special. Millions and millions of dollars are poured every year into college scouting and recruiting, and in the NFL scouting and draft process. One source I saw listed Cruz as the 73rd ranked WR coming out of college that year, not nearly good enough to be drafted by the NFL. So, when elite college kids got invitations to the Combine, Victor Cruz was not included. FYI The Combine is held in Indianapolis every year in February, a pre-NFL draft audition if you will, where most of the college players considered draft-worthy come from all over the country to perform all sorts of football drills, measurements, and tests.
And of course he was not drafted in 2010, not in 7 rounds and 255 picks, not among the 30 WRs taken that year. One team, though, saw something in him. Just enough to invite him to their training camp as an undrafted free agent. It was the NY Giants. And he impressed early. And he continued to impress. When pre-season games started, he still was with them. And then he REALLY impressed, in front of the football world, in a Monday night pre-season game on national TV. I saw that game and wow, he was like an acrobat out there on some of those catches. He caught 6 passes for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns that night, and everyone was asking 'WHO IS THIS KID?!" By the time pre-season ended he had finished 1st in the NFL in yards and TDs and was 2nd in catches. He made the team's regular season roster. Guys in fantasy leagues were scrambling to draft / pick up this unknown kid out of nowhere.
And then... he mostly sat on the bench as their #5 receiver, played very little in the first 3 games of the year, and had zero catches in those games. Worse, he got hurt and the team put him on Injured Reserve, ending his season with a thud after just 3 games. Fantasy players sooner or later dropped him and I think mostly forgot about him. In my 12 dynasty leagues (ones that keep players from season to season) he was still owned in just a couple of them when this year's pre-season began.
But things started to unfold this year. The Giants' receiver who had caught over 100 balls a couple years ago (Steve Smith), no longer under contract in 2011, surprisingly chose to go to another team rather than re-sign with the Giants. Another guy the team was high on (Ramses Barden) was coming along slowly from a previous injury. So Victor Cruz entered the 2011 season as the #4 WR and it looked like he was actually going to get a chance to play some. Then the #3 WR (Domenik Hixon) was injured in the 2nd game of the season and was lost for the year. As the #4 guy Cruz only had 2 catches and 17 yards in the first two games, but he was now the #3 guy and sure to play a lot in this team's style of offense.
In his first game as the #3 guy he broke out, and again looked like the Victor Cruz from that pre-season Monday night game the previous year. Near the end of the first quarter of the game, the QB threw him the ball, and BAM! 74 yard touchdown! Later in the game, trailing by two points in the 4th quarter, he again got the call. BAM! 28 yard touchdown! He finished with 3-110-2. And they won the game. The following week he was 6-98, and the week after that a huge 8-168-1. By now every fantasy league in the world had scooped him up although still technically just the #3 WR on his team. Cruz did not actually become the #2 guy until an injury befell Mario Manningham later in the season, but he was already outperforming Manningham. He began outperforming the #1 guy as well, though both had very very good seasons.
How good did Victor Cruz' season turn out to be, this nobody from nowhere-U that the college recruiting and pro draft experts all totally whiffed on? Despite not really seeing the field until week 3 and not being his team's #2 until mid-season, he finished 3rd among all WRs in the entire NFL in yardage with 1,569 (also 3rd in fantasy points), caught 82 balls, and had 9 touchdowns. This in his 2nd season (but really his first since he was on Injured Reserve virtually all of last year), a point in a career when most young WRs are still trying to figure out how to be marginally successful. Then he helped beat the Super Bowl champ Packers, then went 10-142 against the 49ers' league leading defense.
And now where is he?
Indianapolis, in that same stadium he wasn't good enough to be invited to for the Combine less than two years ago. To be one of the best players starting in the Super Bowl. Simply incredible.
Yeah, I know what player I'll be rooting for. Victor Cruz.
Love you guys.
Dad
Last edited by a moderator:
Like, to the point where they don't know what the Combine is, and wouldn't know that a 10+ catch/142 yard game from a WR is great in the NFL?![[icon]](/data/avatars/m/5/5167.jpg?1660313464){kind=avatar}
