Any thoughts of Plaxico Burress returning to the Giants narrowed when the former inmate ripped into his old coach Tom Coughlin, calling his relationship with the coach "ambivalent.""Some things that I didn't agree with, with the way he went about things. And the only way to show my way was to just rebel. Is that who I am? No.
"That was one of the biggest problems when I left Pittsburgh when I came here. I had a relationship with (former Steelers coach) Bill Cowher inside of football and outside of football. He always had an open-door policy to where you could come talk to him or tell him what was on your mind. When that was taken away from me, I kind of felt it was like: I'm the coach, you are the player. It doesn't matter what you have to say. You just do what I tell you to do.
"This is not college. This is professional sports. If you can't sit down and go talk to a m
an that you are busting your tail for, not even have the respect for anything that you have to say, like I said, the only thing I knew then was to rebel." Burress told reporters on Monday.
Enter the New York Jets. The Jets are in trouble of losing one or both Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes to free agency. The popular theroy is that the Jets will sign Holmes, but lose Edwards because of money. Burress might come cheap, considering he's 34 years old and coming out of prison.
He would fit right in with the Oakland Raider-like mentality that has been established in Florham Park. Holmes and Edwards had their share of off-the-field issues, while Shaun Ellis was pulled over for drug possession, Antonio Cromartie fathered seven children of whom he proved he doesn't know the names in Hard Knocks, and the Jets players and coach Rex Ryan heckled and threw footballs at a smokin' TV Azteca reporter last fall.
The big question is what does Burress have left? I am sure he has the motivation to play extremely well and be a "good boy" now that he's out of the slammer, but at 34 his legs may not be the same. Sure Michael Vick spent two years behind bars, but he was 28 when he was released.
Burress to the Jets is an improvement over any idea of the Jets landing Randy Moss who is a headache in his own right.
Maybe the Jets could tap Ocho Cino or T.O. while they are at it and have every boneheaded receiver in the NFL on their roster.
Rex Ryan prides himself on controling the lunatics of the NFL, so maybe he can find a way to keep Burress' personality in check, something the Steelers and Giants could not do. Cue the music: "Bad Boys."
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