By PAUL SCHWARTZ
Last updated: 6:55 pm
October 6, 2008
Posted: 3:33 pm
October 6, 2008
Not contrite. Not angry. Not apologetic at all. That was Plaxico Burress on the day he was reinstated by the Giants . He repeatedly said he lost no sleep over the suspension handed out by the team that forced him to miss the 44-6 rout of the Seahawks and caused him to forfeit one game check worth $117,647.
"I've moved on, the sooner you guys move on I guess the better you'll feel too,'' Burress said with a slight chuckle on a rather entertaining and at times fairly disturbing conference call.
This was classic Burress: Not shying away from the controversy and at times sounding nonchalant about the fact that he violated team rules by not showing up for work back on Sept. 22, the day after the Giants beat the Bengals in overtime. As per instructions, he was back at Giants Stadium today, getting a in a workout and meeting with Tom Coughlin, who said he anticipates that Burress will be back in the starting lineup for the Monday night game against the Browns in Cleveland.
"I know what he expects, as far as being on the same page we hit and miss sometimes,'' Burress said. "We had a conversation, we talked, I listened, I didn't really have too much to say and we move on from there and go on to Monday night.''
The basic tone of Burress' comments centered on his belief he had to make a choice back on Sept. 22 and he opted to attend to family matters rather than show up at the stadium. He acknowledges that he did not bother to call the team to discuss his absence and that he had no contact with the team until later that night.
Here's the version of the events, according to Burress:
On what happened that day: "I ran into some family issues as far as taking my son to school and things like that. I didn't feel any reason to explain to them what happened or why I missed because I don't feel it's really anybody's business. Like I told them if I have decisions to make as far as my family, my son, things like that, I wouldn't change anything about it. Maybe I would have put a phone call in, that probably would have been the only thing. I don't have any regrets for it.''
On not calling the team: "Maybe I could have put a phone call in. They told you guys I didn't speak to them, which is not true. They called my house Monday night, they talked to my wife, I talked to them on the phone, talked to Jerry Reese on Tuesday. If I didn't talk to them then how did I know I had to meet with them on Wednesday? Them talking about I didn't talk to them at all, that's not true, they know that. I guess that sheds a little bit more light on the situation for them to say I didn't talk to them at all. During the work hours when I was supposed to be there they didn't hear from me.''
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