Beckham, Cruz planning special dance party
JUST WHEN you thought the Giants’ touchdown celebrations couldn’t get any wilder, the King of the Salsa and the Master of the Whip are planning to collaborate on a very special double-feature.
In a revelation that may not exactly make Tom Coughlin smile, veteran receiver Victor Cruz told The News that secondyear man Odell Beckham has approached him about working on a tag-team end zone celebration for the 2015 season.
“He wants to do a dual kind of end zone celebration between him and I,” Cruz said last week at an event to promote Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 phone. “We haven’t come up with it just yet.”
Beckham mentioned the idea in early April, Cruz said, when the two receivers were doing offseason work with Eli Manning at Duke University. Cruz didn’t indicate that the new celebration will replace his trademark salsa, but he does not mind Beckham’s idea.
“The question is I don’t know if he wants to do it when I score a touchdown or when he scores a touchdown,” he said. “That’s the only question we really have to ask.”
Cruz promised that the duo will find a way to craft the celebration without leaving their no-nonsense coach steamed. Coughlin has never cared for post-scoring antics, and last season, he watched far too many pointless ones.
The last time two Giants celebrated together, Antrel Rolle and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie snapped imaginary pictures of each other following an interception score that didn’t even count in a meaningless December win over the Tennessee Titans. A week later, Beckham’s ball-spinning and his signature Whip dance drew a penalty in a win over the Rams.
In both instances, Coughlin made his displeasure clear. But Cruz, whose salsa is one of the league’s most well-known celebrations, won’t let that happen.
“It’s gotta be something we can’t get flagged for, because I’m not trying to have Coach Coughlin kill us for something,” Cruz said. “But it’ll be something kind of creative, so we’ll see. It’ll be good . . . We’re still wrapping our heads around it, but it’ll be fun.”
Cruz, meanwhile, continues to make progress in his rehab from the torn left knee patellar tendon that brought his 2014 to a crashing halt. He began running three weeks ago, although he stressed that he’s nowhere near full speed, working at “60%, 70% right now.
“But it is good to have the wind in my face,” he said.
Cruz understands that many are questioning his ability to return from this injury, and he admitted that he himself has had plenty of doubts.
He said the situation reminds him “a little bit” of his rookie campaign, when he was an unknown player out of the University of Massachusetts. But in some ways, this is harder.
“Having to come back and having to prove myself again,” he said, “and this time, it’s not just having to prove myself to others, but to myself. It’s defi- nitely a challenge to myself.”
Cruz said he’ll have a true idea of his postinjury abilities once he begins running routes for Manning.
“I think the moment for me, I think it’ll come when I start running routes again,” he said. “Because that’s when you know. Once I start cutting and running routes and catching the football, I’ll know whether I’ll be coming back at that same kind of elite position.”