Shortly after George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges connected to the death of Trayvon Martin, Giants receiver Victor Cruz wrote on Twitter, “Zimmerman doesn’t last a year before the hood catches up with him.”
Cruz deleted that tweet, and on the Dan Patrick Show on Monday Cruz said he wishes he hadn’t allowed the emotions of the moment to get the best of him.
“I was a little angry, because as a father you think about if that was your son, if that was your kid that that happened to,” Cruz said. “I put the tweet out there, and once I put it out, I was like, man, that’s not the right thing to say. There’s kids that follow me and I don’t want them to think I’m trying to incite violence on anyone. Those aren’t my intentions, I’m not that type of guy. Where I come from, I heard violence outside my window each and every day. I don’t want to be someone to promote that even more.”
Cruz said he thought about his young fans when he decided to delete his tweet.
“Kids look up to me and I’m a role model to these kids and I don’t want them to think that what I wrote was OK, what I wrote was something that should be done or something that’s positive in our community, because it’s really not,” Cruz said.
Feelings about the Zimmerman verdict are understandably raw. Cruz is a big man to deal forthrightly with his mistake.