Jets get last laugh after celebration

Plaxico Burress said he never saw the victory celebration that Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson performed in the end zone Sunday after catching a touchdown pass in the second quarter. He never saw the mocking way Johnson goose-stepped around the end zone while pretending to shoot himself in the leg.

Burress may have been unaware that he was being made fun of. But that didn't keep him from getting the last laugh on Johnson and the Buffalo Bills in the Jets' 28-24 win at MetLife Stadium.

Burress made possibly the most important catch of the season with a little less than two minutes remaining in the game. On third-and-11, Burress made a spinning, one-handed grab of an 18-yard pass from Mark Sanchez to keep the Jets' winning touchdown drive from stalling out.

Two plays later, Santonio Holmes, another player Johnson mocked in his second-quarter celebration, caught a 16-yard touchdown pass for the game-winning celebration.

"I didn't know about it, but I've seen worse and I've heard worse," Burress said. "So it doesn't bother me at all. The result is what I'm looking at, and it's that we won the football game."

Holmes did catch Johnson's celebration and didn't think too highly of it, saying: "It was a childish act."

A childish act that may have resulted in some very bad karma for the Bills, who have lost four straight and are 5-6.

The Jets won only after the Bills' final drive was stopped at the Jets' 24. In what some may see as a case of poetic justice, Johnson dropped a potential winning touchdown pass when the ball fell through his hands at the Jets' 20.

Johnson apologized for his second-quarter celebration after the game and said he might have cost his team the win.

Johnson, who made eight receptions for 75 yards, was called for unsportsmanlike conduct after his 5-yard touchdown reception. That forced the Bills to kick off from their 20, and four plays after the Jets recovered the squib kick at the Buffalo 36, Sanchez threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Burress to tie the score at 14.

In addition to mocking Burress by pretending to shoot himself after his second-quarter touchdown, Johnson zoomed around the end zone with his arms outstretched like an airplane, which is the way Holmes and some other Jets celebrate touchdown catches.

"It was very stupid of me going through that," Johnson said. "I can't be doing that. I feel like I cost my team the win. I apologize to everyone."

Jets coach Rex Ryan said he did not see the celebration but added that he was "glad he did it."

Burress said the celebration wouldn't have bothered him if he had seen it because he has had to develop a thick skin since returning to the NFL after serving a 20-month prison sentence.

"I've already been through the wringer with that whole situation," he said. "I like him. He's a young player and I like him a lot and he's going to be a great player in this league."