Thoughts on Burress’ Holdout
In between the two practice sessions yesterday, we found out that Plaxico Burress won’t practice until he gets a new contract. When asked if he would be ready for training camp, Plaxico said:
We hope so. Me and my agent are trying to get this deal done for the future so I can remain a New York Giant and we’re just not happy with the way things are going right now. That’s basically the main reason why I’m not out there. I personally don’t like the way that it’s going. I’m not happy about it, and I’m choosing not to participate. I’m not saying I’m being mistreated, but everyone wants to be treated fairly. We came to them and said we wanted to get a deal done and that’s really not going the way we want it to up to this point. Hopefully we can make something happen pretty soon. I know I can play stellar football for at least another four or five more years, so as far as me getting injured last year, that’s basically one of the most frustrating years that I’ve been through. I sit back and look at myself, if I can go out and do the things that I did, basically on one leg and a half a knee in the Super Bowl, I mean, what kind of performance am I going to give when I’m 100 percent?
On behalf of the Giants, Jerry Reese stated:
It’s internal business and it’ll be handled internally.
Following up on that, Bob Glauber of Newsday pointed out that Burress’ public remarks upset the Giants to the point where the Giants “did not make a transcript of his remarks”. Glauber believes that this was not a coincedence. Bob stated that, “The Giants are regarded as one of the classiest and most generous teams in the league. But they don’t like having their cages rattled publicly.” Since Jerry Reese didn’t budge with Strahan last year, he doesn’t think Reese will budge with Plaxico this year. Glauber also believes that if Reese budges after a public holdout then he will have to deal with all of the other players that were hoping to get a new contract but didn’t. I agree with Glauber tht the Giants are the classiest organization in the NFL. Like I said yesterday, I have no problem with any player asking for more money. However, don’t announce to the media that you’re not participating in practice. Plaxico is showing up the organization by doing this. If you read Burress’ quote above about how well he played last year on one leg then you will see that he asked, “what kind of performance am I going to give when I’m 100 percent?” It is a hypothetical question. Is he going to play 100% because he doesn’t have that track record? If he plays with the heart that he did in ’07 then he probably will be great for the remainder of his career, but what happens if he reverts to playing like he did in ‘05 and in ‘06? He was 100% healthy but did not play 100%. His stats were less than desirable, he gave up on plays when Eli threw interceptions his way, and Strahan called him out on television for giving up on one of those plays. What if the Giants grant Plaxico his new contract and turns into the Plaxico of ‘05 and ‘06? It would be a waste of money. How does a player hold out when they performed really well for only one out of three seasons? In this specific scenario, I feel like the Giants have the upper hand. It would be different if Burress was outstanding all three years, or even two out of three. Maybe you could of said the first year was transitional, and he got better each year. Prior to ‘07, I wanted him off of the team. He won my heart over in ‘07, but the Giants can simply point out the facts in this case. Gary Meyers of the New York Daily News believes that the Giants should pay Burress, but trade Shockey.
