Q&A Session With Plaxico Burress
Arash Markazi of SI.com had a Q&A Session with Plaxico Burress on Friday. Here are some of the questions…
SI: First of all, there’s been some confusion about your situation with the Giants. Will you be there for the start of training camp, on the practice field, ready to go?
Burress: Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m just waiting on the Giants and my agent to get this deal done in the next few days or so, and I’ll be ready to get down to camp on time on the 24th.
SI: So you’re saying a deal is imminent and you’ll be on the field for the start of camp?
Burress: Yeah.
SI: You almost didn’t play in the Super Bowl after spraining your MCL during a fall in a hotel shower. In your book, you mention crying four days before the game after being told you likely wouldn’t play.
Burress: Yeah, I was very scared. I didn’t think I was going to be able to play. I remember I didn’t run for a week and a half before that. I didn’t know how it was going to feel on Sunday. They gave me some medicine to numb it up but the medicine wasn’t working too good because I was still hurting. The first time [it hurt] was during the warm-ups before the game. It was painful and frustrating because I wasn’t able to do the things I wanted to do, because I was hurting so bad, but I kept telling myself, “If there’s one game I can play with a lot of pain it has to be this one.” I found it in myself to somehow perform. I was just so frustrated that whole game — I don’t remember talking to anyone because I was in so much pain coming off the field and going to the sideline. I was hurting so bad that I just wanted to play one or two plays. I didn’t really think I would play the whole game.
SI: There’s some stuff in the book that’s going to come back at you during the season, especially the weeks you play the Cowboys. You wrote: “The Cowboys don’t talk a lot of trash. They don’t want to get me riled up. You know, their secondary is not that good anyway. Terrence Newman is a good player and I like Kenny Hamlin. But outside of them, there’s not much.” Any concerns?
Burress: Not at all. I’m a very honest person and when I look in the mirror and be honest with myself it’s easy to tell the truth and tell the things that you see. I didn’t have any problem writing or saying anything that was in the book.
SI: The hardest thing for a champion to do is repeat; especially in the NFL where lately we’ve seen Super Bowl teams not even make it to the playoffs the year after a title. What’s your mindset going into this season?
Burress: I want to win another just as bad. When you get one, you want to do it again. That’s what we play for, and when you put that ring on, it’s a daily reminder of all the hard work you put in to get to that point. I think we’re going to be better than we were last year, and I expect us to win it again.
Training Camp is only days away so it seems like Burress won the battle against the Giants. I expected that all along because the Giants couldn’t have made an example of Plaxico and Shockey at the same time. They wouldn’t have any playmakers left if they did that so I figured that they would’ve given into Burress and gotten rid of Shockey. However, it seems like the Jints caved into both players at this point in time.
