EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Former New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, who made a splash in the NFL and also played a season in Bridgton Academy, 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. In 2004, he played at Bridgton Academy, finishing his only season there with 47 catches for 883 yards and eight touchdowns.
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.”
Manning said he and Cruz talked in the Giants’ locker room two weeks ago, and he wished him well “going to the dark side.”
Manning laughed when asked if he wanted to prerecord his response to Cruz’s first criticism of his play.
“He’ll be all right, I hope,” Manning said.
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, authorities said.
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.
TITANS: Tennessee agreed to a contract extension with wide receiver Rishard Matthews through 2019.
The receiver, currently on the PUP list this preseason, has 225 catches for 3,136 yards and 21 touchdowns in his career.
RAVENS: Cornerback Jimmy Smith has been suspended for four games without pay for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, stemming from Smith’s behavior toward his ex-girlfriend.
The suspension will take effect after the final mandated roster cuts on Sept. 1 and extend through Baltimore’s game at Pittsburgh on Sept. 30.
PANTHERS: Rookie receiver D.J. Moore faces an Oct. 2 court date after being cited earlier this month for doing 113 mph in a 65-mph work zone.
JETS: New York claimed kicker Jason Myers off waivers from Seattle.
Myers was waived by the Seahawks on Monday after Sebastian Janikowski won the team’s kicking competition.
BEARS: Linebacker Roquan Smith stopped practicing with tightness in his left hamstring, Coach Matt Nagy said. The rookie was shut down as a precaution and may practice Wednesday.
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