Cruz takes strange route to Stampeders camp
Kamar Jorden knew exactly who A.J. Cruz was the second he heard his name.
Starring in 4th and Loud, a reality show about the Arena Football League’s Los Angeles Kiss, means that Cruz gets that a lot. He’s recognized more than most AFL players, for sure.
When he’s asked about the show, Cruz smiles and then jumps right into talking about his time in the arena league. It’s not the reality fame he focuses on, though. It’s the opportunity the league presented.
“That whole arena stint I had before the NFL was a great experience,” said Cruz, who spent time with the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins in 2015 and ’16. “I wasn’t getting any looks anywhere, so I had to go through at least nine open tryouts and a couple of private workouts before I even got a look, a true look.
“Sometimes, people just write you off because they see that you’re five-foot-eight and they’re like, ‘Oh, we don’t need him’ and finally I got that chance, and sure enough, I took hold of it.”
Cruz is looking for another chance this year with the Stampeders. He’s smaller than most of the players competing at training camp for a position at receiver, but that’s something he’s been dealing all his life.
As a defensive back at Brown University, Cruz earned first-team all-Ivy League honours in three of his four seasons. He’s since been converted to receiver and has come down with some impressive catches so far at camp for the Stamps.
“Because of my lack of height, I need to pay more attention to the little things and excel at the little things. My fundamentals have to be precise,” Cruz said. “That’s something I’ve always prided myself on, on doing things the right way and learning to do it the right way.
“It’s just one of those things where I’ve always paid attention to the details and the things I can control, and I think I’ve been blessed with a good athletic skillset. I’m very quick and agile.”
Whether those abilities translate into a full-time gig with the Stampeders for the regular season is anyone’s guess at this point. The team’s got a talented group of receivers returning from last season, but Cruz only needs to look back to last year’s team to see a guy like DaVaris Daniels, who arrived at camp unheralded but jumped in front of several established veterans to become a star.
And given Cruz’s long journey to get here, he seems as good a bet as any to beat the odds, just like he did to get his job with the Kiss and then in the NFL.
“It was every bit a process of working for it,” Cruz said. “It would have been easy to turn away after the first three times I was told no, to say ‘You know, I’ve got an Ivy League degree and maybe I go into business somewhere’ but it was something where I had to persevere and I’m very proud of that experience because it was so challenging.”
WAIT CONTINUES
Randy Colling is getting closer, but the Stampeders’ first-round draft pick still hasn’t participated in contact drills so far at training camp.
Colling has been on the sidelines since the start of rookie camp with an injured knee, and the team is exercising caution while waiting for a knee brace that staff hoped would arrive early this week.
“We thought it was a Mondayto-Wednesday type of schedule, but maybe it went through the mail,” Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson said. “He didn’t practice today, he’s doing his stuff, but we’re still not ready to put him into full contact.