Take pity on the plight of Victor Cruz.
Photo gallery: Nike unveils new uniforms
Well, don't take too much pity. He's the breakout star of the New York Giants' Super Bowl team, but he's also perhaps the most criminally underpaid player in the NFL right now.
Cruz was third in the league in receiving last season, but he's due to make just $540,000 in 2012, the final year of his contract before he becomes a restricted free agent.
By comparison, the league's leading receiver in 2011, Calvin Johnson, recently signed an eight-year, $150.5 million deal from the Detroit Lions. New England Patriots receiver Chad Ochocinco was paid $6 million last season despite finishing with 1,260 fewer receiving yards than Cruz.
A training-camp holdout is a common leverage ploy in these situations, but don't expect to see it in Cruz's case.
"That's not even in my vocabulary," Cruz told the New York Post on Tuesday at the Nike uniform rollout in New York. "I don't even know what that means."
This obviously is good news for the Giants, who could've had a major headache to deal with had their top playmaker decided to go into hiding. As for Cruz, the 2012 season is shaping up as a huge-risk/huge-reward proposition.
