So long, Plax

I think Plaxico Burress will be playing football again next year, but it won't be for the New York Giants. As I expected, the team severed relations with him, suspending him for four games (i.e. the rest of the season) and placing him on the non-football-injury list. The latter is critical, because that means they can go after his money.

As cold blooded as that seems, let me emphasize that the Giants have been more than fair with Burress. They are one of the league's flagship franchises, and their front office is respected around the NFL. They have a record of success, winning Super Bowls in the 80's, 90's and 2000's. What they don't do is place individuals ahead of the team, no matter how talented they are.

The Giants believe in giving athletes second chances. They draft players that no one else would touch. Last year they drafted Ahmad Bradshaw, even though he had been arrested a couple of times and expelled from college. They explained the situation to him, kept him on a short leash, and he contributed to their playoff run last year. This year they drafted Mario Manningham, who wasn't even off some teams' draft boards due to his off the field problems.

But they've already given Burress second, third, fourth, and fifth chances. If he had been a straight arrow (like Antonio Pierce) they would have sent him flowers in the hospital, and told him to rest up for the playoffs. But Burress has been nothing but trouble this year, and his production has been down as well. They think they can win without him, and maybe they can.

The simple fact is that Burress has always been an accident waiting to happen, and the Giants knew that when they gave him a $35 million contract just before the season started. The contract is heavy with incentives, as in a $100,000 bonus just for being active for a game. He doesn't actually have to play, just suit up. So with all of the incentive pay gone, the contract won't cost the Giants much, and it is salary cap-friendly for next year as well.

I expect the lawyers will find a way for Burress to avoid jail time. More problematical is the NFL stance toward him. I think other teams will want Burress, I'm just not sure when the NFL will let him play. Goodell is fed up with football players making headlines for the wrong reasons, and that should cost Burress at least part of next season, at best.

In the strange but true department, the NFL Players Association is appealing Burress' suspension. I should have expected that. I was a union representative, and it seemed like most of my job was to represent people who should have been fired. One day at work a supervisor told me something to the effect that it occurred to him that I always had to deal with the same bad people as he did. I told him it's worse than that: at least you get to punish them, I have to defend them. But like any good union, the NFLPA stands up for its members, claiming the team violated his rights. That was the same reason we always defended bad people, too. We didn't want to establish a precedent they could later use to punish good people. If I had been an attorney, I would have wanted to be a prosecutor, not a defense attorney. It doesn't pay nearly as well, but it would have been a lot more satisfying.