Plaxico Burress Unapologetic

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

N.Y. Giants receiver Plaxico Burress was rather flippant in his response to being suspended by his team for one game. Today was his first day back with the Giants since he decided not to show up for work one day and was suspended and fined as a result. But rather than admitting any wrongdoing and accepting any blame, Plax was simply in denial:

“It was just a situation I had to deal with that morning, and I made the right decision. I don’t have any regrets about the decision I made at all ….. My emotions were that they suspended me. That was the decision they chose to do. I’ll take it at that. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. I got me some rest and was able to get away for a while and chill out and relax. Things like that happen. I’ll keep moving forward and get back to doing what I do: catching footballs, scoring touchdowns and get back to work ….. There are some things that you guys don’t know. So you can’t say it wasn’t an emergency on my part because you don’t know everything that was going on ….. Coach said I was suspended because I needed to be more responsible. I was being responsible, I just put my child first.”

OK, here’s the deal. And it’s pretty simple. Plaxico doesn’t get it. Of course he has a responsibility to his family first and foremost, but he also has a responsibility to his teammates and his employer. Because without his employer, he probably wouldn’t be able to take care of his family financially.

Plax was wrong for simply not showing up and the team was right to suspend him for one game and take a game check from him. If there were an excuse — an emergency — that prevented him from making a quick telephone call to let the team know he wasn’t going to be able to make it to work on time, all he had to do was tell them about it afterward and I’m positive the team would’ve sympathized with a legitimate emergency. When he doesn’t call and then covers up by saying we (the media, the public) “don’t know everything that was going on,” that’s unacceptable. We (the media and anyone outside the team) don’t need to know everything that was going on. The Giants do, though. And if it were a legitimate emergency, there would not have been a suspension or a fine.

Plax tried to justify his actions by saying he was putting family first. So anytime a “family matter” comes up, apparently he feels he can just drop everything and do whatever he wants. See, that’s just Plaxico not getting it. Of course family comes first. Duh. But there’s a common sense code of conduct in handling things that come up in life. Anybody with any common sense at all knows you don’t just not show up for work unless you want to get fired. But because of who he is — the superstar receiver for the Super Bowl champions — he felt he could get away with it. And that it wouldn’t really matter because he ultimately thinks he’s bigger than the team. Really, that’s what it boils down to. But the team showed him that he’s not bigger than anyone else on the team. And I respect that decision.

Judging from Plax’s words during his first day back today, I think he’s kind of a punk. He’s just being defiant and immature. Yes, he is one of the best receivers in the NFL. I’ll give him that. He plays through injuries and he is just plain good at what he does on the football field. But he doesn’t get it.

Source: NFL.com, Photo: Newscom