'I Am Giant: Victor Cruz' Documentary TV Schedule and Preview

Every athlete has a story that goes beyond what the world knows of him or her on the field. New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz will tell everyone his story on Friday in a Showtime documentary titled I Am Giant: Victor Cruz. 

Per the official description on Showtime's website, the 55-minute feature trails Cruz's rise from difficult circumstances as a young man to becoming one of the NFL's best wide receivers followed by his season-ending injury in 2014 and quest to return. 

Premiere Date	Start Time (ET)	Network	Streaming	Duration
Friday, Oct. 30	9 p.m.	Showtime	Showtime Anytime (Subscription Required)	55 minutes

Cruz has not appeared in a game for the Giants since Oct. 12, 2014, when he tore the patellar tendon in his right knee while leaping in the air, attempting to catch a touchdown pass against the Philadelphia Eagles. 

According to Jordan Raanan of NJ Advance Media, the original plan for the documentary was to give it the "storybook" Hollywood ending with Cruz back on the field in his blue and white jersey as he caught passes from Eli Manning:

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But then a calf injury got in the way this summer. Cruz hasn't played a game, and the calf problem is still lingering as "I Am Giant: Victor Cruz" is set to debut on Friday at 9 p.m. (ET) on Showtime. 

Despite some optimism, Cruz is still not practicing. He meets with the doctors again on Thursday, hoping to hear some positive news on his calf.

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While that would be one way to end a documentary—especially if it's built around Cruz suffering the injury and his rehab—the change in his status does give the filmmakers an opportunity to show the intense struggle and profound toll a major injury can take. 

That does sound heavy given the way it was originally supposed to conclude, but smart documentary filmmakers can make it work. 

Plus, it's not like the details of Cruz's formative years don't include pain. He's spoken publicly many times about his father's suicide in 2007. His grandmother, who is the inspiration behind the patented salsa dance he does on the field, died in 2012. 

Personal tragedy has helped shape Cruz into the football player and man he is today. The peek inside Cruz's life, which a lot of athletes are hesitant to give, is something he admitted to being nervous about people seeing, per Tom Rock of Newsday.

"I'm nervous," Cruz told Rock. "It's my life. It's an in-depth look at what I go through on a daily basis and things I've gone through dealing with the recovery, the rehab process, as well as other facets of my life."

In the same interview with Rock, Cruz talked about seeing the footage from the film in which he suffered the injury that has kept him out for more than one year:

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I had never seen it until they recorded it that one day. [They] handed it to me on YouTube and I watched it and it was, um, it was different to see myself in that regard . . . To see myself go down, see how emotional I was. Obviously, I knew all of that because I was there, but to see it, you can see how vulnerable I was and how in one play, in an instant, something like that can happen.

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Director Gotham Chopra, who was also behind Showtime's previous athlete documentary, Kobe Bryant's Muse, explained to David Parnell of Forbes before that film premiered in March about the unique challenge of this genre of filmmaking:

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There’s something inherently exciting and uniquely challenging about non-scripted film-making. You don’t know where it’s going to go when you set out. You have a rough idea because of the topic or subject, but then the story goes and you follow it. You have to be nimble and agile and non-judgmental and spontaneous.

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Cruz's injury—and how it will be chronicled in the film—is a perfect example of what Chopra is talking about. He may have come into the movie with an idea of how to end it, but real-life circumstances forced a change. 

The injury is also an important storytelling device because there's a natural tendency to think of athletes as superheroes that are capable of returning within a doctor's-recommended time frame and playing at the level before they were hurt. 

More than one full calendar year after Cruz went down, the Giants are still waiting for their 28-year-old star to return. Who knows what kind of player he will be when he does come back?

It's a question that will likely be at the heart of the documentary, though not one that it can likely answer before the end of its nearly hour-long running time. That makes it even more fascinating and raw—or an excellent way to get a new perspective on the former Pro Bowl receiver.