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A Long Way From Lambeau
Giant Contract Too Small
by Mark Lyne-Austen
17/6/2008
 Plaxico Burress deserves a new contract. The New York Giants star receiver is currently getting heat for publicly calling for more cash but he has earnt it. Traditionally no-one likes to see me-first players crying about their huge pay packets and they tend to be castigated for it especially when they take it public rather than handling it internally.
Doing it in public is what draws ire and perhaps rightly so as it shows a team that are not united. Nothing hurts a football team more than egos getting in the way of the greater good of the organisation as a whole. The locker room distractions, the damage to team work ethic, the bursting of salary caps are all huge problems for a team. The New England Patriots focus obsessively on their team spirit because they have at their head people who know that it is a team that wins and not one person.
Some players also recognise that it is the team that matters above all else and one of those appears to be Giants center Shaun O’Hara. No doubt O’Hara has the right values at heart but he is wrong about Burress. If this were an unreasonable demand made by an out of control player then O’Hara would have been right but it is not unreasonable. Those with a particularly short memory may not remember the Conference Championship game against Green Bay where Plaxico Burress was unstoppable.
Having dealt with an ankle injury all season long, Burress was the difference between the two sides. Out-matching Packers Pro Bowl Corner Al Harris en route to 11 catches for 151 yards, the Giants offense on that day was Burress. In a must-win match, against a quality passing defense, in freezing temperatures, away from home, Burress was awesome. While he was far from the star attraction in the Super Bowl against the Patriots, those who were would not have been in position to make those wins without the Burress performance in Green Bay.
Teams need a great receiver. Having someone who can do the incredible like Randy Moss does for the Patriots, or Larry Fitzgerald in Arizona, opens up the offense and gives the other players around more opportunities. Other receivers find single coverage more often and the running game is not as boxed in when there is someone like Burress to worry about.
Not every team gets to have a great receiver and those who are that notch above know it. That can be trouble as Randy Moss or Terrell Owens have shown. Neither of those players has won a Super Bowl. Burress has. He is not asking for the sort of paycheck the biggest receiving stars in the league cash in but he is asking to be recognised.
Star receivers can be volatile and they do have egos that they like stroked but today’s league is not the one where Vince Lombardi can scream a team onto a championship victory. Even hard-faced Giants coach Tom Coughlin has appreciated the different world we now inhabit. The notorious disciplinarian’s methods just did not cut it to start with in New York but he cannot helped but notice the success of a Super Bowl ring that followed his switch to a more considered coaching style.
 Players also know that times have changed and that is why increasingly some look to stand up when they feel something is not right. O’Hara’s outburst at the demands from Burress are just him doing what he thinks is right. Brett Favre did the same after all when Javon Walker was talking his way out of Green Bay. However, Walker it turned out, was entirely correct. He did not get the contract boost that he was looking for from Green Bay yet played on and was seriously injured.
The career of an NFL player is only one play away from decline or even ending. Teams can cut players despite having a contract. Marshall Faulk, the unassuming superstar of the St Louis Rams during their Greatest Show On Turf era has supported Plax’s demands if only because he understands quite how precarious a player’s position can be. Like Burress, Faulk only found Super Bowl glory after he had left his initial team having been traded away from the side that drafted him.
Burress did not make himself popular at his original side, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Leaving the team just before their Super Bowl year was probably not the smartest move but it did finally pay off this season. While Burress is still prepared to deal and is not asking for stupid amounts of money, it is time to make that move. The Giants are not traditionally big spenders in free agency and with the enormous salary cap these days, the hit will be acceptable.
There are circumstances though in which the pay rise would not be acceptable. Unlike Burress, Jeremy Shockey does not deserve more money. The high intensity Tight End has long been the emotional heart-beat of the Giants offense but they did not miss him last season on their Super Bowl run. While definitely a receiving threat at the position, Shockey has been unable to shake off injuries and is not key to the offensive production. The player that replaced Shockey, Kevin Boss, may not be a real catcher but he is huge and is a substantially better blocker.
For Shockey, the odds are against him. Injury, lack of production, being disruptive, and that the next man up did a good job all score him down. Shockey is not the difference maker that Burress can be and should instead be worried about protecting his own position on the team. For Burress, the only prospect of him having to worry about someone taking his spot would be a big money trade in which case he would no doubt have the pay rise he was looking for anyway. At this stage of the season, the minicamps are not going to affect his on-field ability he barely practiced at all last year and yet still did well when his ankle was strong enough for him to play hurt.
It may well still be the right thing to criticise egomaniac players for their crazy demands but Burress and his demands are not crazy.
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