Friday’s Giants News: Will Plaxico Get Suspended?
Apparantly, Chad Johnson is doing the same thing in Cincinnati as Plaxico Burress is doing here in New York. The only difference is the reason why they said they haven’t been participating. Ocho Cinco claims he is injured like Jeremy Shockey rather than saying he wants more money. Mike Florio of SportingNews.com wonders if these tactics will backfire and if either one of these players will get suspended. Florio pointed out that:
Though the NFL’s club discipline schedule does not expressly allow teams to fine players for refusing to practice, the collective bargaining agreement permits a team to fine or suspend a player for engaging in conduct detrimental to the team. Surely, refusing to practice when otherwise healthy constitutes detrimental conduct.
Refusing to practice is, in fact, the essence of conduct detrimental to the team because it defies the entire concept of “team,” in which each member has a job to do and does it.
Under Article VIII, Section 1 of the CBA, the maximum permissible fine for conduct detrimental to the team is one week’s pay. The maximum permissible suspension is four games without pay.
In addition to (and separate from) any fine or suspension for conduct detrimental to the team, refusing to practice also jeopardizes the player’s signing bonus, if the player’s contract contains appropriate forfeiture language. Though recovery under contracts signed after February 2006 is limited to 25 percent of the current year’s signing bonus allocation, it’s still a significant amount of money.
Regardless of how the Giants and Bengals deal with their rogue players, any failure by teams to take a stand against such disruptive behavior will result in more of it, and players who want more money will look for more ways to pressure teams into caving.
Now that was a very intersting article by Florio. It seems like only the stars are trying to pressure the organization they work for to give them more money. Since the stars are producing at a higher level than the rest of the team, the team’s record will suffer if the organization takes a stand. The organization doesn’t have as many options now as they did when Free Agency began. Who is the best receiver that the Jints can obtain now if they have to suspend Burress? They won’t get anybody who is nearly as talented as Plaxico right now. If Big Blue caves in then it says that they will cave in to others which isn’t good either. If you remember from yesterday then you will remember that Mike Garafolo of The Star-Ledger wrote that Shockey could get suspended also. The Giants do not have enough talent to have a successful season if they suspend both of them. That’s for sure. So which one do they suspend, the disgruntled one or the greedy one? I say Shockey because his issues have been going on for years.
Giants.com:
centerXchange w/ Shaun O’Hara (Video) - John Schmeelk has an exclusive sitdown interview with Giants Center Shaun O’ Hara.
Mini Camp Report - Day Two (Video) - John Schmeelk and Michael Eisen report on yesterday’s Mini Camp.
The Star-Ledger:
Drew is in the ‘haus - Mike Garafolo pointed out that Drew Rosenhaus is at Giants Stadium today. He believes that Rosenhaus is there to try to smooth things over with the organization about Jeremy Shockey and Burress.
Shockey’s spot still has spark - Mike Garafolo provides the latest status on Shockey and discusses the current TE position.
