October 6, 2008 New York Giants Injury Update: RT Kareem McKenzie and WR Domenik Hixon both suffered concussions in the game against the Seahawks on Sunday. “They are a little bit improved and hopefully with the extra day they will be cleared,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin.
WR Plaxico Burress Returns to the Team: WR Plaxico Burress’ two-week team suspension has ended and he returned to the team yesterday.
“I did speak with him (Monday) morning,” said Coughlin. “It all appears that he is ready to go…He was and he was here and lifted and ran this morning.”
“It is good, man,” said Burress. “It feels good…My emotions were they suspended me and that was the decision that they chose to do and I took it at that. I didn’t lose any sleep over it. It gave me some rest and I was able to get away for a little while and chill out and relax. Things like that happen and I put it behind me and keep on moving forward and get back to doing what I do – catching footballs and scoring touchdowns – and get back to work.”
When asked what happened, Burress responded, “I ran into some family issues as far as taking my son to school and things like that. It was not like I purposely missed out or that was my intention. It just seemed to happen that way and I didn’t feel any reason to explain to them what happened or why I missed because I don’t feel it is really anybody’s business. It is like I told them, if I had a decision to make as far as my family and my son and things like that, I wouldn’t change anything about it and I would still make the same decision to do that. Maybe I would have put a phone call in, but that probably would have been the only thing. As far as things like that, I am going to always put those things first and I think that is one thing that people have to understand, but I don’t have any regrets for it.”
“My family is my first priority and like I said, it doesn’t matter how people look at me when it comes to football,” said Burress. ” I am making decisions based on my life and what is going on in my life as far as my family; I am always going to do that first. I think that is what people need to understand. Football is the best temporary job I am ever going to have in my life and my family is going to be here forever. That is where I stand with it. I told them that and I will tell you guys that. I haven’t lost any sleep over the situation; I feel I have made the right decision. I am still living, I am still walking around, so I am fine. I am looking forward to playing Cleveland next week on Monday night and everybody knows I am going to be playing on Monday night.”
When Burress was asked if he let his team down, he responded, “I definitely did. I definitely let them down. When I can’t go out there with them I am definitely letting them down. I went out there and limped around and played hurt and didn’t want to miss a game, so why would I not want to be out there? I was out there even when I wasn’t supposed to, so of course I let them down.”