Burress on the hook for car damages as Giants mull his future

New York Giants’ wide receiver Plaxico Burress was back in the news on Wednesday, and for a change it wasn’t just due to his on-going legal issues.  While Plax was in a Pennsylvania courtroom to find out how much money he’d have to pay to a local Chevy dealer, at least one powerful member of the New York Giants’ braintrust publically stated that he’d prefer it if the team moved on without him.

Burress got some good news for a change when a Lebanon, Pennsylvania jury awarded a local car dealer $1,700 in damages to a vehicle that he’d either leased or “loaned” depending on whose version of the story you buy.  Frederick Laurenzo, the dealer who brought the civil claim against Burress, had originally sought over $19,000 for damage to a 2006 Chevy Avalanche SUV.  He had entrusted the vehicles to Plax, who let one of his “boys” drive it and eventually had it seized in yet another shooting incident.  Eyewitnesses identified the vehicle as the source of a drive-by shooting, after which the police found weapons in the Avalanche and arrested two people including a cousin of Burress.  Plax signed a statement that while he’d loaned the vehicle to one of his “crew” he had no knowledge of its whereabouts or any involvement in the shooting.

That glimmer of good news, however, was overshadowed by some gathering storm clouds over Burress’ pro football career.  Giants’ coach Tom Coughlin, in an interview on NY sports radio station WFAN, made it clear that he was “not ready” to bring Burress back to the team:

"We need to sit down and think about it and talk about that and see what the circumstance might be. And I told everyone, I told the world, that Plaxico is a member of our team and I am concerned about him, for his well-being and that of his family. But the issues that I have to think about are that there are 52 other guys in that locker room as well."

Coughlin’s interview was something of a public “line in the sand” in opposition to team GM’s statement on Sunday that he’d “absolutely” want Burress back on the team if he’s not spending the next few years in the “grey bar motel”.  Coughlin did stop short of blaming Burress for the team’s late season struggles and early playoff exit:

"I just don't like to go there. Because here's the thing: Plaxico wasn't out there. There was nothing we could do about that. We had to take the players we had and take full advantage of it. We had some opportunities now. We just didn't get it done.

"Of course when you take a player of that magnitude off the field there is going to be an adjustment. There are going to be changes. There's going to be things that you're not going to be able to do that you once did, or that the defense had to do that perhaps they're not doing now. But that wasn't the reason. We still had plenty of people in position to get things done. I'm just not going to go that way."

It’s hard to argue with Coughlin’s position against Burress’ return to the team.  At some point, Plax forgot that he owes whatever money, fame and “juice” he has to his professional football career.  Instead, he’s entered a realm of make believe where he’s a “gangsta” or a “thug”.  The problem is that *real* “gangstas” don’t shoot themselves in the leg with their concealed weapons.  The entire situation demonstrates that he’s not cut out for “thug life” and that he’s better off sticking to catching passes since he’s an abject failure at packing heat.   He’s reached a point, however, where his thug fantasies may cost him his NFL career—as well as a couple years of his freedom.