New York Giants veteran wide receiver Victor Cruz appeared on the "Timeout with Taylor Rooks" podcast on Monday where he addressed the much-maligned boat trip that he and fellow receivers took to Miami on the Monday before their wild-card game against the Packers in Green Bay.
Previously, Cruz and Odell Beckham Jr. downplayed the trip while Eli Manning joked about their lack of shirts in the widely-shared photo (below). Meanwhile, head coach Ben McAdoo didn't say much publicly except that it wasn't a big deal, and that the players were on a day off. So were the defensive backs, who declined the invitation.
About four weeks removed now from the excursion, Cruz is singing a slightly different tune. He told SNY's Rooks:
"Looking back on it, it definitely wasn't worth it. At the end of the day, you want to put your mind in a place where you want to succeed at whatever your next task is, especially in a football setting and a football atmosphere."
"You just win a game ... granted it's New Year's Day and you're an adult and you pay your own bills and it's an off-day, so you want to just go out and enjoy yourself. I think the photo is what made it because a picture is worth a thousand words."
Cruz didn't say if the trip itself put the receivers's minds in the wrong place to succeed, or if the criticism the trip attracted caused a headache. One or the other, or both.
The first half of that the Packers-Giants game was competitive until the wheels came off for New York in the second half. It ended in a 38-13 beatdown that saw Beckham commit two costly drops and later punch a hole in a wall outside the team's locker room.
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