Wolf
09-10-2011, 12:44 PM
NEW YORK (AP)—Plaxico Burress(notes) is critical of Giants coach Tom Coughlin, quarterback Eli Manning(notes) and fans for the way they reacted when he was sent to prison on a gun charge in the October issue of Men’s Journal.
Burress said in an interview with the magazine a few weeks before he signed with the Jets in July that he wished Coughlin had shown some concern when he met with him after accidentally shooting himself in the leg in November 2008. He saw the Giants coach on television commenting on the situation “and the first words out his mouth was `sad and disappointing.”’
“I’m like, forget support—how about some concern?” Burress said. “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.”
He also told the magazine, which hits newsstands next week, that Coughlin is “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,”’ Burress said. “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 day he was having.”
Coughlin said at Giants camp Friday that he wasn’t aware of Burress’ comments in the magazine.
“I am really not all that concerned,” he said. “I’m sure it was lots of grandiose statements. I don’t know anything about that. I am really not interested in it, either.”
Burress said he was disappointed Manning never visited him or tried to communicate with him while he served his 20-month prison sentence.
“I was always his biggest supporter, even days he wasn’t on, `cause 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 met with Coughlin and the Giants’ front office when he was a free agent—after the interview with the magazine—and has maintained it was a pleasant conversation that helped clear the air between them and provided some closure. Coughlin, though, said the meeting was for another reason, at least from his perspective.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-burress-mensjournal
Burress said in an interview with the magazine a few weeks before he signed with the Jets in July that he wished Coughlin had shown some concern when he met with him after accidentally shooting himself in the leg in November 2008. He saw the Giants coach on television commenting on the situation “and the first words out his mouth was `sad and disappointing.”’
“I’m like, forget support—how about some concern?” Burress said. “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.”
He also told the magazine, which hits newsstands next week, that Coughlin is “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,”’ Burress said. “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 day he was having.”
Coughlin said at Giants camp Friday that he wasn’t aware of Burress’ comments in the magazine.
“I am really not all that concerned,” he said. “I’m sure it was lots of grandiose statements. I don’t know anything about that. I am really not interested in it, either.”
Burress said he was disappointed Manning never visited him or tried to communicate with him while he served his 20-month prison sentence.
“I was always his biggest supporter, even days he wasn’t on, `cause 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 met with Coughlin and the Giants’ front office when he was a free agent—after the interview with the magazine—and has maintained it was a pleasant conversation that helped clear the air between them and provided some closure. Coughlin, though, said the meeting was for another reason, at least from his perspective.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-burress-mensjournal