There was Eli Manning, Curtis Painter and Ryan Nassib all wearing their customary red practice jerseys Thursday inside the field house. And then there was Victor Cruz, running around on the green field turf, wearing a red No. 8 jersey, the uniform top that used to belong to backup quarterback David Carr.
It was a strange way for Cruz to return to the practice field after sitting out Wednesday after he said his neck was stiff when he woke up Tuesday morning. Cruz said it was merely a precaution and that he would be ready to roll the next day. Well, Cruz was on the field, but he was not wearing his usual white No. 80 jersey. Usually, only quarterbacks wear red jerseys, which signify “no-contact,’’ but Cruz was wearing red as well.
This was not Cruz’s idea.
“Hey, man, I just work here,’’ Cruz said. “I abide by the rules. [Coach] Coughlin wanted me to put the red jersey on just to make sure everyone understands not to hit me when I’m out there running routes and to prevent the injury from happening again. Because he knows if somebody tries to bump me or something, my instinct is going to kick in and want to do something so I think that’s all that was. I kind of like the red jersey. I was fooling around with Eli [Manning], if he needed a break at any time I’m available.’’
It is unusual for a non-quarterback to wear red, but Coughlin said, “It’s an unusual situation’’ and explained he made the decision “so he can get through the practice and not have any setbacks, and I think we did that.’’
Cruz got plenty of grief for the red jersey, especially from Justin Tuck.
“As soon as I brought it out here from the training room he was, ‘Aw, man, say it ain’t so,’’’ Cruz said. “But I had to do it and it was good.’’
In the locker room, as Cruz walked in wearing the red jersey, Tuck nodded toward Cruz and said, “Make sure you don’t touch him!’’
Cruz was listed as participating on a limited basis in practice and said he felt fine. On a scale of 1-10, he said, “I’m at a cool 9.5 right now. I feel good. I just want to get another good day of practice in and hopefully I’ll be at a 10 right after that and we’ll see how it goes.’’
CB Corey Webster (groin), RB Brandon Jacobs (hamstring) and CB Trumaine McBride were on the bikes at the start of practice and did not appear to be preparing to practice.