Previously, it appeared that receiver Plaxico Burress was interested in every NFL team except the Giants. Now, it appears he’s interested in the Giants, too.
A source with knowledge of the situation tells us that Burress is indeed interested in the Giants. That comes in response to a report from Adam Schefter that the Giants are discussing Plaxico’s possible return.
On Monday, Giants co-owner John Mara said that the team “certainly . . . will talk” about pursuing Burress. Coach Tom Coughlin reportedly expressed a willingness to engage in those discussions.
It all seems a bit bizarre, especially since Burress was fined upwards of 50 times during his final season with the team. Then there’s the fact that he shot himself in the leg, which surely contributed to the Giants’ inability to get beyond the divisional round that year in the postseason.
In a June interview with Stephen A. Smith of ESPN, Burress ruled out playing for Coughlin again. “My situation in New York, me and my coach had an ambivalent relationship to say the least,” Burress told Smith. “Some things that I didn’t agree with, with the way he went about things. And the only way to show my way was to just rebel. Is that who I am? No. . . .
“I kind of felt it was like: I’m the coach, you are the player. It doesn’t matter what you have to say. You just do what I tell you to do. . . . This is not college. This is professional sports. If you can’t sit down and go talk to a man that you are busting your tail for, not even have the respect for anything that you have to say, like I said, the only thing I knew then was to rebel.”
Burress has since explained that his top priority is a coach with whom the relationship wouldn’t be ambivalent. “Well, the head coach is going to be first and foremost,” Burress told Adam Schein and Rich Gannon of SiriusXM NFL Radio. “It’s going to be somebody to where, well, you know, he has an open door policy, I can walk in his office and sit down and talk to him whether it’s about football or life or whatever that may be.”
So what’s really going on here? It could be that the Giants are showing interest in Burress in order to avoid a backlash from the fans in the event Burress goes elsewhere (like Philadelphia) and plays at a high level again. And it could be that Burress welcomes that interest, even if he’s not really interested, because it could drive up the interest of other teams.
Either way, it’s all very intriguing.