Plaxi-shmoe delays his fate until September. Time is NOT on this guy's side. Sure, if he pulled a Keith Hamilton, kept delaying AND KEPT PLAYING while he delayed, he would be doing something that is effective. But the delays in this situation mean he does not necessarily play. Why do the Bears/Jets/Bucs sign him to a deal when he is a question mark with the court system and the league? It is challenging enough to get involved with a player that has a troubled past. Why get involved with a player that has a troubled present and/or future?
So for a moment, let's assume he would not return to football until after his legal issues are figured out. His value and his return to football drop with every postponement. You do not just turn things off and turn them back on at this professional level of athletic commitment. Michael Jordan went to baseball for ~1.5 years and it took another year after his return before he could play at the level he was at before he left. Plaxico Burress has been out of football since November of last season. Now he misses training camp and if he has to serve time it is 2010 before he sees football again. He would probably have an uneven 2010 season, 2011 he would return "to form." But here is the kicker- he would be THIRTY FOUR YEARS OLD BY THAT POINT in 2011. This guy does not have the time he thinks he has. He has just burned 5 months in postponements.
Let's also remember it takes time for ANY WR and ANY QB to get the rhythm and communication necessary to succeed. Not only is this guy going to have to get back to max football output, he is also going to have to learn a new playbook and a new QB. Peyton Manning to Marvin Harrison happens after many years of each player knowing exactly what is going on. The only way out for Burress would be if some team like the Bears were to do make the leap now, take future risks and have an experienced QB like Cutler shorten his communication curve. And then of course we are talking Burress, who would be in Florida in the offseason, not working on his timing with his new QB.
As the story goes, Burress would like to play for the Jets so that he can "stick it to the Giants." Too bad that this shmoe is too busy sticking it to himself first.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
17 postponements
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4 comments:
I don't know who is to blam for last years falure more, Gilbrown or Plax.
Teams like the Bears, Jets & Bucs could view the latest continuance as an opportunity to swoop in and make Burress a contract offer knowing the legal uncertainty as well as not knowing how NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will react to the latest news.
Goodell faces a dilemma. Burress technically is guilty of nothing but being stupid enough to shoot himself in the leg. But Goodell typically waits for the legal process to play out before doling out discipline. The Burress case so clearly violates the NFL's Personal Conduct Policy (a bullet wound doesn't lie) that allowing the wide receiver to play this season as his lawyers drag out the court process risks making a mockery of the league's discipline policy.
The commissioner doesn't need a conviction to take action.
But will he?
Or....
How bad do the Bears, Bucs & Jets want to win?
There in lies the rub!
Pastime, all I can think of is Manning getting sacked EIGHT times by the Cowboys in that PB-less stretch run. Where were the flares and screens to stop that avalanche? Too little, too late. They called #44 for a screen at the end of Q3, it gained 16 yards. One screen. AZ called SIX in one game vs the Eagles in the NFC Championship. I do not know if the Giants had more than 3 to 5 screens in the final 6 GAMES w/o Burress.
Everyone assumes that pax and Eli were always on the same page. But this was not the case. REmember in the SB in the 4th otr on 3rd down, eli escapes the pass rush rolls to his left and there in single coverage is plax. The correct adjustment is for plax to go deep. Manning does what he is supposed to and throws long, but plax slows down and instead of a big play, it is an incomplete and everyone blames manning. But if plax does what he has been coached to do, it is a monster play, maybe even a TD. But certainly a 1st down. The giants led 10-7 at that point. Who is to say how the game would eventually unfold, but it was a mental error by plax.
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