Coughlin not ready to say he'd welcome Burress back to New York Giants

by Mike Garafolo/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday January 14, 2009, 4:48 PM

During an interview this afternoon on WFAN (full audio here), Mike Francesa asked Tom Coughlin if he would welcome back Plaxico Burress as long as his legal issues are taken care of. Remember, GM Jerry Reese and a few key players have said they would want him back. Here was Coughlin's response:

"You know what, I'm not ready to say that because we need to sit down and think about it and talk about that and see what the circumstance stance might be," Coughlin said. "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 I have to think about is there are 52 guys in that locker room as well."

Read into that what you will.

As for the Giants' missing Burress on the field, Coughlin has been adamant about not using that as an excuse. He stayed true to that stance today.

"I just don't like to go there," he said. "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. And of course when you take a player of that magnitude off the field, there is going to be an adjustment, there's going to be change, there's going to be things that you're not going to be able to do that you once did or that the defense has 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 some things done and our combination of run and pass should have been enough. So I'm just not going to go that way."

MG