WR Victor Cruz retires, plans to join ESPN

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. » Former New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz has retired.

In making the announcement Tuesday, the 31-year-old Cruz said he plans to join ESPN as an NFL analyst. Cruz will contribute to variety of shows and make his ESPN debut Wednesday.

Cruz was a seven-year NFL veteran and a 2012 Pro Bowl selection. He joined the Giants in 2010 as an undrafted free agent out of Massachusetts. He had his first 1,000-yard season and caught a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl victory over the Patriots in February 2012.

Cruz had 303 catches for 4,549 yards and 25 touchdowns, including an NFL record-tying 99-yard reception in December 2011. He was signed by the Chicago Bears in 2017 but cut before the season.

Giants quarterback Eli Manning said Cruz had a terrific career.

Cruz burst onto the scene when he caught three touchdowns in a preseason game against the New York Jets in 2010. It made for a great story because he grew up in nearby Paterson, New Jersey, which was within 30 minutes driving distance, depending on the traffic. He made the roster but sat out with injury.

He became a star the following season.

“He had a great feel for the offense, his routes, and he was tough to cover,” Manning said Tuesday after the Giants practiced for Friday’s annual preseason game against the Jets. “He would run down the field, break it in, and we gave him a lot of options. He mastered some of those concepts, and it gave him a great opportunity to get open and make big plays for us.” TEXANS’ WATT EAGER TO RETURN, MOVE PAST INJURY WOES » Nearly 11 months from his most recent NFL game, Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt isn’t hiding his eagerness to get back on the field.

The three-time Defensive Player of the Year hasn’t played since he suffered a broken left leg against Kansas City in Week 5 last season. The prior year, he missed the final 13 games of the 2016 season with a back injury that required surgery.

With his recent string of injuries, Watt said he has one major objective if coach Bill O’Brien lets him play in the team’s dress-rehearsal game against the Rams in Los Angeles on Saturday night.

“I want to come out healthy,” Watt said. “I want to be able to go on the field and then come back off the field.”

Sounds simple enough, right?

When the Texans selected pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney with the

No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 draft to complement Watt, the duo was expected to menace quarterbacks for years to come.

Four seasons later, however, the two have played in just 25 of 64 games together as Clowney dealt with injuries early in his career and Watt has struggled to stay on the field the past two years.

This summer, Watt has been active in practice and has shown glimpses of what made him great in four consecutive Pro Bowl seasons from 2012 to 2015. Last year, despite the injuries, he made his impact off the field, raising more than $37 million for Hurricane Harvey relief. The accolades continued to roll in this offseason when he picked up the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year as well as the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year honors for 2017. INCOGNITO ACCUSED OF THREATENING FUNERAL HOME STAFF » Former NFL offensive lineman Richie Incognito bonded out of an Arizona jail Tuesday after being arrested on charges he threatened to shoot employees of a funeral home a day earlier.

Police in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale said Incognito had been booked on

suspicion of misdemeanor charges of threats and disorderly conduct.

Incognito, 35, posted a $20,000 bond. He has an Aug. 27 pretrial conference in Scottsdale Municipal Court. It was unclear Tuesday if Incognito had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

Police said Incognito was at the Messinger Pinnacle Peak Mortuary on Monday to make arrangements for his father, who died last weekend.

“Incognito reportedly was upset with staff and began to damage property inside the business and shout at employees,” said Sgt. Ben Hoster, a police spokesman. “At several points during his contact with staff, Incognito threatened to retrieve guns from his vehicle and return to shoot the employees.”

A police report showed officers later executed a search warrant on Incognito’s pickup truck and seized two Glocks, three rifles and a silencer for a handgun.

The report also said Incognito’s family had told him he wasn’t going to be allowed to attend his father’s funeral and he had been acting erratically.

Witnesses at the funeral home told police that Incognito

wanted them to cut his dead dad’s head off for research purposes and Incognito punched caskets, threw pamphlets around and took an urn from a shelf and slammed it down on top of a casket.

Two mortuary employees took cover in a room downstairs before police arrived and arrested Incognito. CHARGERS EXPECT NO FIGHTS IN JOINT PRACTICES WITH SAINTS » Fights during joint practices at NFL training camps have been a common sight this year, a trend Los Angeles Chargers coach Anthony Lynn does not expect will continue when the New Orleans Saints join them for two days of workouts beginning on Wednesday.

The Chargers and Saints practiced together without incident for two days last year in Orange County, which makes Lynn optimistic there will not be any trouble this time around.

“We had good, clean, physical practices last year against this group, and I expect the same thing,” Lynn said Tuesday. “I know (Saints coach) Sean Payton. I’ve known him for a long time. I know what he’s telling his guys and I know what I’m telling my players, so I don’t expect any fights

or anything like that tomorrow.”

Baltimore and Indianapolis became the latest teams to scrap during training camp, with multiple donnybrooks breaking out during their workout Saturday.

Other notable fights this month included a session between Washington and the New York Jets that devolved into a large brawl between both teams, and a fracas between Houston wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and San Francisco defensive back Jimmie Ward which led to Texans coach Bill O’Brien booting Hopkins from practice.

Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen understands why the competitive atmosphere of joint practices can become combustible.

“Going against our guys everyday, now we get to go against another defense and compete, see where we at,” Allen said. “You’re out here competing, everybody trying to make a play and it gets physical. Just got to be able to take it.”

The Chargers were unable to avoid the temptation during joint practices with the Rams last year, as Allen and other Chargers wide receivers got into it with Rams defensive backs on several occasions.