NY Giants’ Eli Manning makes phone call

Victor Cruz hadn’t caught a pass from a quarterback in months, when his cell phone rang one day during the NFL lockout. He looked down and saw it was Eli Manning.

It was not a call he was expecting to get.

“I looked at it and I was like, ‘Eli Manning?’ Is this working?” Cruz recalled. “It was cool to see his name pop up on my phone.”

That was back when Cruz was an unknown, unsure of his spot on the Giants’ roster, and still hoping for his first reception in the league. This phone call wasn’t just a thrill, though. It was one of the most important calls he ever received.

A few days later, Cruz was out on the field at Hoboken High School for the start of a loosely organized — and much-ridiculed — passing camp organized by the Giants’ franchise quarterback during the NFL lockout. Only 12 different players showed up for the six, hour-long workouts in early May, and never more than a few at a time.

Cruz made all but one of the sessions, and nobody benefitted from them more.

“We got close,” Manning said. “We did a lot of slot work (with him) and making decisions and reads and just talking through things. And obviously he’s a guy who’s had a great season. I’d like to think that work paid off.”