Even After Winning The Super Bowl, Victor Cruz Still Gets Mistaken For A College Basketball Player

Despite what's suggested by ESPN's graphic, that's not Stanford forward Josh Huestis. It's actually New York Giants breakout star Victor Cruz, who took in last night's NIT semifinal at Madison Square Garden. This is not, sadly, an anomalous mistake. Even after scoring a touchdown in Super Bowl 46, Victor Cruz remains an invisible man in the Big Apple.

In a New York City dominated by Eli, Sanchez, and (now) Tebow, Victor Cruz walks unnoticed among the same citizens who snatched up cheap Super Bowl Champions gear from corner Duane Reade stores days after the Giants seized the Lombardi Trophy. When Victor Cruz walks into a club, does the DJ immediately put on his trademark salsa music? No. Can Victor Cruz skip the observation deck lines at the Empire State Building? Not without paying the extra $26 you or I would. Victor Cruz has never eaten at Masa for the same reason you and I have never eaten at Masa: because we cannot get a table at Masa.

Pro football mavens rave about the team nature of the game, saying that because no one player can individually affect the outcome it is the purest of professional sports. Maybe that's true, or maybe it's only true within the context of the game itself. But if it means Victor Cruz walks among us—casting a shadow no larger than our own and being mistaken for someone else on national television—something seems very, very wrong about that.