Giants' Cruz: Hurricane power outage 'feels like 1990'

Hurricane Sandy has left huge chunks of New Jersey and New York without power and the New York Giants have been affected as much as anyone else.

On Wednesday, Giants players had their first practice since Sunday night's physically draining 29-24 victory over the Cowboys in Dallas.  The slightly altered session was held in the late afternoon instead of the morning to give assistant coaches — who lost power — more preparation time.

The Giants team been improvising since Sandy left a path of destruction across most of New Jersey — where most of the players and coaches live — by bunking together or, in some cases, reverting back to childhood.

Giants wideout receiver Victor Cruz had one of the funniest lines regarding his new lifestyle adjustment.

"We don't have any cable or Internet right now,' Cruz said of his family house's situation, joking, "It just feels like 1990 all over again."

While Cruz's circumstances take him back to being a five-year-old Paterson, N.J. kid — and his biggest problem probably being whether or not to watch Urkel on "Family Matters" or the Olsen twins (years before they became goth-looking millionaires) on "Full House" —  for some players it was more serious.

Giants like Tight end Martellus Bennett and his wife decided to move in with a teammate as Big Blue prepares to host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.

"I actually stayed at Kevin Boothe's house," said Bennett.  "They had power, we didn't have power, so we went over there."

"It was great having [Martellus]," said Boothe.  "My son loves him.  He thought Martellus was there solely to play with him."

While Boothe's hospitality was evident, some Giants cherish their privacy and weren't so accommodating.

"They can't stay with me," gruffed Jason Pierre-Paul half-kidding.  "I don't like to see 'em after work."

Meanwhile, the salsa-dancing Cruz summed up the mood around Giants practice by paraphrasing head coach Tom Coughlin.

"As Coach Coughlin says, "It's a mid-stream adjust," said Cruz.  "So we have to be able to mid-stream adjust to these things and learn how to prepare throughout any circumstances.  Because I guess it's just the nature of the beast.  But as the term says, the show must go on.  We've got to be ready to play."

Funny, I remember those words coming from Luther or Dauber on that 1990 TV show "Coach."