Coughlin shrugs off Plaxico's comments

Plaxico Burress had two years in prison to think about the gun violation that put him there and how it ended his career with the Giants one season after his touchdown catch allowed them to win Super Bowl XLII. As his criticism of Giants coach Tom Coughlin and quarterback Eli Manning in a just-published article in Men's Journal shows, he hasn't forgiven or forgotten.

Coughlin, Manning and the Giants organization, on the other hand, have moved on and apparently regard each eruption of bitterness from Burress as they would a pesky fly, brushing it aside and then ignoring it. Excerpts from the October magazine article were published Friday, including Burress' description of Coughlin as "not real positive" and his feeling that Manning's failure to visit him or communicate with him during his prison term came as a "slap in the face."

Manning did not make an appearance in the Giants' locker room after Friday's practice, avoiding questions about Burress. Coughlin said he was not aware of the details, and the coach added, "I'm really not all that concerned. I'm sure it was lots of grandiose statements. I don't know anything about that, but I'm really not interested in it either."

Most of what appeared in the magazine article echoed similar comments Burress, who accidentally shot himself in the leg in a New York nightclub in November 2008, made during the NFL lockout not long after his release from prison. Recalling Coughlin's initial reaction to the incident, Burress told the magazine: "After my situation happened, I turned on the TV, and the first words out his mouth was 'sad and disappointing.'

"I'm like, forget support -- how about some concern? I did just have a bullet in my leg. And then I sat in his office, and he pushed back his chair and goes, 'I'm glad you didn't kill anybody!' Man, we're paid too much to be treated like kids. He doesn't realize that we're grown men and actually have kids of our own."

Burress met with the Giants during the free agency period but ultimately signed a one-year deal with the Jets for just over $3 million. The much looser style of Jets coach Rex Ryan obviously appealed to Burress.

Comparing Coughlin, Burress said, "He's not a real positive coach. You look around the league, the Raheem Morrises and Rex Ryans -- when their player makes a mistake, they take 'em to the side and say, 'We'll get 'em next time.' But Coughlin's on the sideline going crazy, man. I can't remember one time when he tried to talk a player through not having a [bad] day he was having."

Manning's decision to cut off communication seemed more surprising to Burress. "I was always his biggest supporter, even days he wasn't on, because I could sense he didn't have thick skin," Burress said. "Then I went away, and I thought he would come see me, but nothing, not a letter, in two years. I don't want to say it was a slap in the face, but I thought our relationship was better than that."

Burress' comments reportedly resulted from an interview held before he visited the Giants during free agency and sat down with Coughlin, general manager Jerry Reese and part-owner John Mara for a cordial conversation. Asked if that meeting resulted in a sense of closure between Burress and the Giants organization, Coughlin said that wasn't the purpose.

"We were trying to decide whether and to what extent we were going to be able to try to make an offer," Coughlin said. "It wasn't about closure. It was about business. It was about going forward."

Asked if Burress ever gave the Giants the impression he was opposed to signing with them, Coughlin said, "No, not at all."

Burress called into the Stephen A. Smith show on ESPN Radio on Friday night. "Tom is going to be Tom," Burress said when talking about his meeting with the Giants in July.

In the magazine article, Burress also ripped fans who he said "took pleasure" in his situation. 

“What are you doing now?” Burress said about fans who criticized him. “You still mad at your job? You still angry about your life? ’Cause I’m back living my life and enjoying my family while you’re still doing the same thing.”

When asked by Smith to clarify that quote on ESPN Radio, Burress did.

"People are not going to like you for their own personal reasons, which is crazy, but that's how life is," he said. "I own a mirror. I look in the mirror every day. I know who I am, I know what I've been through."

Over at the Jets' practice complex Friday, Burress was unavailable to fan the brushfire he started, and Ryan declined to pour gas on it when asked how he might have dealt with the self-shooting incident. "I don't really want to deal with the what-ifs, or that kind of stuff," Ryan said. "I don't think that's fair to anybody. I'd rather not comment."

That doesn't mean Burress' Giant fixation is over. No doubt the controversy will be resurrected before the two area rivals meet on Dec. 24.