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Giants receiver Plaxico Burress showed up for a mandatory minicamp last month, but he refused to practice until he got a new contract.
Burress has reported for Giants training camp. But, again, he’s not practicing.
“I’m not sure what that issue is,” coach Tom Coughlin said after the Friday morning session. ”Until I have more information, I’m not commenting. I just said all I can say.”
Burress is supposed to practice only once per day. Thus, there’s a chance he’ll practice this afternoon. But if that’s the plan, Coughlin hasn’t been informed of it.
“I have no idea,” Coughlin said. “The question was, ‘What about this afternoon?’ I said, ‘I’m not sure. I would have to check with the medical people.”
Burress was fined $42,000 for his antics in June. He now faces further fines, and possibly a suspension for conduct detrimental to the team.
He wants a new deal, despite being signed for three more years. As we heard it last month, Burress could have signed a shorter-term deal in 2005, but he wanted to do a six-year deal because of the size of the signing bonus that came with it.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
I love this….this team is gonna implode before the season even starts. Go EAGLES!!
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Rating: 2.4 / 5 with 7 rating(s)
July 25th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
“Burress could have signed a shorter-term deal in 2005, but he wanted to do a six-year deal because of the size of the signing bonus that came with it.”
Apparently you can have your cake and eat it too.
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Rating: 4.6 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
July 25th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I hope that Plaxico has da Shingles…
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 25th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Is it just me or don’t you think that this is getting to be something that the commissioner should step in on and make a statement to the entire NFL? Not the Plaxico case specifically, but I think he needs to remind all of the players how NFL contracts work.
He should remind all players that signing bonuses are up front pay for future performance to be spread out over the years of the contract, not just free money. He could then explain that if you want shorter contracts and the ability to upgrade them, they should sign shorter deals and not expect to have it both ways. I just find it laughable that I very rarely hear anyone call these players out on this with the exception of Florio. It is getting ridiculous!! Once once team renegotiates with 3+ years left, the agents use this as leverage with other teams and their clients or even other clients on the same team. It’s time to put Pandora back in her box. Pun intended.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
July 25th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I agree that this seems like its getting a bit crazy, but this happens every off-season. I think especially now that rookies are getting insane amounts of money, the vets want a piece of the pie too.
Also keep in mind that teams can cut players whenever they want. These “contracts” aren’t contracts in the way that normal people sign them. These basically limit the player for X number of years to play for a certain team, unless the team bails on them.
Think of players like Shaun Alexander. He got paid, he stunk, he got cut and now he’s got no job. Did anyone cry that the team didn’t uphold the deal? Of course not.
In the same way, its not that unreasonable for players to want to be paid based on how they did. If a team can rip up a contract in year 1, players feel they can too. The answer lies much deeper than just Goodall saying “guys, stop it!” It lies in changing the way players are paid league-wide so that players who perform get paid, and those who don’t, are left without the big dollars. Rookie wage scale? Heavy performance incentives? Maybe. Whatever the answer, it goes deeper than what has been suggested I believe.
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Rating: 4.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 25th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Another turd wanting to renege on his contract. He makes the Bucs Garcia look good since Garcia is practicing and he is in his last year of his contract. Yes, I know Garcia’s is 38 but still.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out but Plax is acting like a spoiled greedy turd.
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Rating: 2 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 25th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
clangile - That’s the ONLY hope for the Eagles, that the rest of the NFC implodes. Good luck with those receivers and your paper mache QB, AGAIN.
URNotMe - with you 100% of the way. Unfortunately, even if the Commissioner says it, it can’t be enforced. What the owners SHOULD do is make it part of the new labor agreement that contracts longer than three years cannot be renegotiated. Then, and only then will it be clear to the players that they either go for short term contracts and big raises if they produce or take the upfront money and security of the long term deal. That is really the only way to put an end to this once and for all. Since it appears that a lockout is inevitable, they might as well get it done.
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 25th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
In this case there was a large signing bonus involved. I believe, if for some strange impossible reason, Burress were to get cut, he keeps the signing bonus, right? Isn’t that the whole point of the signing bonus? I agree that it’s a double standard, expecting players to hold up their end of the “contract” while having the luxury of cutting them whenever they want, but a player like Burress knows he in no danger of being let go. It’s a hostage situation, and few teams have the guts to stand up to them. When they do, you end up with a guy doing sit-ups in his driveway.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 25th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I like the idea of perfomance incentives, otherwise, sticking up for these high priced crybabies is just plain stupid. they get plenty of money up front, and then plenty every year for the life of the contract. This would be more acceptable for them to want to renegotiate if they had to return a prorated portion of the bonus money commensurate with the time they haven’t fulfilled yet. You get a 10 mil bonus for a 5 year contract and want to renegotiate after only 2 years, fine, just return the 6 million that you got but didn’t earn yet and we can talk. The team counts 2mil per year on the cap whether the player is on the team or not, so if you voluntarily want to redo the deal, this is the consequence. Just like if the team wants to voluntarily cut you before the deal is done, they still lose money against the cap. Fair is fair. Read the contract before you sign it, numbnuts.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 25th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
east69st,
If the owners were to put into the CBA, that contract cannot be renegotiated with 3 or more years left on them, they would have to turn around and say that players can’t be cut with 3 or more years left on the contract. That would not happen because if a 7th rounder who signed a 4 year deal makes the roster one year, then gets hurt, he wouldn’t be able to be cut. The whole situation stinks and no matter what happens there are going to be people on each side of the fence throwing shit at each other.
Incentive laden contracts sound great on the surface, but there can be a lot of problems with that also. A player, say a RB, may not disclose an injury because he is 50 yards away from getting his incentive with one game left in the season. So he may get hurt and ruin his career. On the other side if a player is healthy towards the end of the season and is close to getting their bonus, but the team is up by 30 going into the 4th qtr of the final game with nothing to play for, and the player gets benched that will cause a ton of friction.
Both sides will never have peace so let’s see what happens when they renegotiate in a few years.
Should be interesting.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 25th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I thought Rosenhaus made his clients wear safety helmets while riding an exercise bike during a dispute? Why was Plax not wearing his?
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July 25th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
NYBearsFan - I’m not a labor attorney, but it would seem to me that the owners should be able to hold the line on this one without offering a no cut guarantee. After all, it was the players that brought this issue to a head. The reality is, as far as I know, none of the owners have even brought it up. If this contract renegotiation crap is pissing them off as much as it pisses off the fans, they are not showing it. What I find so surprising is if the owners knew they were going to dump the CBA, why did so many of them choose to build or start to build new stadiums? They lost a lot leverage there because the players union knows the owners cannot afford an extended lockout. No one is going to convince Jerry Jones that after he built a billion dollar stadium that he now has to sit tight while the NFL season is cancelled indefinitely. They weakened their hand and, as a result, I expect the new contract will do nothing to stop this crap. Getcha popcorn ready, more morons will end up doing sit ups in their driveways telling us how underpaid they are.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 26th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I understand why fans are pissed w/ all the contract renegotiations by millionaires getting paid ridiculously well for playing a game. But the problem is and always has been the fact that these contracts are not guarenteed. If the Giants decided to cut Plax loose tomorrow they owe him nothing even though he has three years and ten million bucks left on his original contract. It happens all the time so I actually do understand why NFL players do this. My problem is with them not performing their jobs while they renegotiate…get your *** on the field and let your agent do his job!
By the way, the Eagles fan who thinks this somehow gives his chokers a shot at doing something this year….pathetic!
http://www.myteamrivals.typepad.com/newyorkgiants
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 26th, 2008 at 11:48 am
This is the result of the salary cap rising each year. Sure the player is happy to sign these long term deals at the price that day(sometimes much of the deal guaranteed). Then as cap rises the next year or 2 NEW free agents sometimes inferior in ability to them are getting bigger deals and are paid more. Jealousy! And the result is now every year we see disatisfied players doing the same thing as Plax or Westbrook or whoever. Same thing is happening in NHL where the contracts are guaranteed but players too in that situation feel they are now underpaid.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 26th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Players have leverage here , why not use it ? That is my opinion .
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July 26th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I think that if you are using this cap system as the NFL was at least for another year, when you raise the cap which raises the amount of money to be used for players’ salaries, then all those who have contracts should have their salary raised by the exact same per cent the cap israised. This way they share in the profits they helped create. And each team then would not give the entire raise to new players coming in.
Imagine a union in some company negotiating a !0% raise from the company for next year, but the employees currently already on contract, get none of the raise but the new hirees get it all. If these NFL players had their contracts raised each time the cap was raised , we’d hardly see this problem that seems to be getting more common.
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