It’s been over three years since the New York Giants’ infamous boat-trip picture, and it still haunts former wideout Victor Cruz.
You can make the argument that the New York Giants organization has never moved past the infamous boat-trip picture. Just days before the team’s January 2017 wild-card matchup with the Green Bay Packers, multiple receivers — Odell Beckham Jr., Victor Cruz, Sterling Shepard, and Roger Lewis — were lounging on a boat and partying in Miami, acts that could’ve been dubbed as “distractions” to the team.
All Big Blue had to do to erase that narrative was win a big game in Green Bay. Nonetheless, they succumbed to a 38-13 defeat and have won just 12 games since then.
And still, to this day, the photo depicting the short vacation rubs Cruz the wrong way.
“This photo will haunt me for the rest of my life,” he said during an appearance on E!’s Pop of the Morning.
“If this was 1999, no one would have known about the trip, we would have went, had a great time, come back. And then had we won the game, that’s the part that kind of bothers me, too. If we won the game, they’d be like, ‘Go to Miami every week, apparently that’s the good luck charm.’ The fact that we lost, left a bad taste in everybody’s mouth.” he added.
The four aforementioned wideouts combined for just 11 catches and 121 yards in what was an underwhelming performance from the Giants offense against the Packers.
You can say the Miami trip had nothing to do with the playoff game, which was nearly a week later. Either way, it wasn’t a good look for Big Blue nor those individuals, and still isn’t as we speak.
