There were plenty of Giants fans and likely more than a few people associated with the team worried about how wide receiver Victor Cruz’s quest for a new contract would impact the team during the coming season, but those worries were put to rest on Monday when Cruz signed his extension with the team.
Now it’s time to think about other worries and we’re not talking about Hakeem Nicks’ expiring deal. The arrest of Aaron Hernandez on murder charges has put the issue of off-field behavior in the spotlight and Cruz believes that the Giants will be addressing that issue with a meeting early in training camp so that no one goes down the same road as the former Patriots tight end, who Cruz somewhat charitably describes as someone that “made kind of the wrong decisions.”
“Knowing us it might be a full fledged meeting on security, the things we can do or decision-making,” Cruz said during an interview on WFAN, via Conor Orr of the Newark Star-Ledger. “We take that stuff seriously, especially in the inner-city area where you never know what could happen.”
The Giants probably won’t be the only team addressing what Hernandez is accused of doing once they get together this summer. How much impact those discussions will have is anybody’s guess, but you can bet the rather large elephant in the middle of the room will be addressed far and wide as teams ramp up for the season and, as we’ve already seen, there will likely be other reactions to the fallout from Odin Lloyd’s murder.