Newsday Plaxico made right move by joining Jets Bob Glauber He will talk with his former teammates on the field Saturday night, sharing memories and reliving some of the good times, especially from that unforgettable Super Bowl season in 2007. It will be an emotional moment for wide receiver Plaxico Burress , now a Jet nearly three years after his last game in a Giants uniform, and he will enjoy reminiscing. But the one thing he won't do is wonder what his life might have been like had he decided to reunite with his old team, whose fate changed along with his own on that fateful November night in 2008. This much became obvious Wednesday when Burress talked about what it's going to be like facing the Giants at MetLife Stadium. Apparently, nothing the Giants could have done this summer -- short of promising him a ridiculous amount of money, perhaps -- would have convinced Burress to reconnect with them. We know now the Jets were willing to invest heavily in Burress, guaranteeing $3.017 million in salary compared to the $1 million in guarantees the Giants were offering. And that Giants' offer was contingent on making the final roster. But what if the Giants had matched -- or exceeded -- the Jets' offer to show they were willing to make a significant commitment to bring him back? Even cold, hard cash might not have convinced him. When I asked Burress before practice if he would have made a different decision had the Giants ponied up more money than the Jets, the 34-year-old didn't hesitate with his answer. "Personally, I needed a fresh start,'' said Burress, who joined the Jets after serving a 20-month prison sentence following his self-shooting at a New York nightclub on Nov. 28, 2008. "If I wanted to go somewhere and get more money, I could have [gone to] a couple of more places and signed a two- or three-year deal. But I just wanted to go somewhere fresh, have an opportunity to play for a great head coach in Rex [Ryan] and a great team. I feel I'm in the right place." He is in the perfect place. Going back to the Giants would have been a mistake, even if the money had been comparable. He needed to move on, and the Jets offered a terrific alternative, an atmosphere as far removed from the Giants as you could imagine. Ryan's freewheeling style is the opposite of Tom Coughlin 's, and Burress already feels more comfortable than he did with Coughlin's more disciplined, more demanding approach. "I'm doing this every day with a smile on my face, with a new attitude," Burress said. "We did some great things over there. I have some good friends, and I still have some Giants fans over there." But his meeting with the Giants in late July was important for Burress, even if he knew it wouldn't lead to a return. He used the word "closure" to describe a series of meetings with team officials and visits with former teammates at the Giants' training facility. "It went as I expected it to," Burress said. "We had some laughs and great memories. I saw that picture up on the wall." It was a prominently displayed shot of Burress making the winning catch against the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, and he paused for several seconds to look at it. "It was humbling, it was good," he said. It all fell apart the next season, starting with Burress' self-shooting. The Giants were 10-1 at the time, finished 12-4 and lost their first playoff game. Too much history there to go back, even if he did find it gratifying to meet with team officials. "It was good to see Jerry Reese , John Mara , Steve Tisch," Burress said of the Giants' general manager and co-owners. "To be able to have an opportunity to sit down, face to face, for the first time and tell them how much I appreciated them bringing me in and allowing my game to flourish. It was a great meeting." Notice the one name Burress neglected to mention? Yep. Tom Coughlin . Burress met with him, too, but didn't mention it Wednesday. Unintentional oversight? Don't think so. All the more reason why Burress is in the right spot and with the right coach.
Burress could have gone to a bunch of other places for more money but the Jets were probably the only team that told him he'd start.
They guaranteed the entire year as well. I would imagine the other teams gave him incentive laden contracts. So Glauber's article maybe a bit misleading.
Even if both your statement are true, you have to believe that after watching everything that went on with the Jets for the last 2 years while Plax was off the field, has to lead you to believe that he wanted to play for Rex. God knows, Jets fandom aside, if I had a choice of head coaches, I would follow Rex.
Giants offered $30M plus Tom Coughlin. Jets offered $3M plus Rex Ryan. He made the right call. j/k. Giants offered $4M with none of it garuanteed. Jets offered $3M fully garuanteed. He took the sure money.
You only have to look at how he agreed to join the Jets on the way to meet with SF to see he wanted the Jets all along. This was from espn aug 1st: Burress confirmed that he was on a layover in Los Angeles, on his way to meet with the Niners, when he agreed to the Jets' deal. Surprisingly, he said he hadn't talked to anyone in the Jets' organization. He said coach Rex Ryan left a couple of messages, but they never actually spoke. "I really didn't need to talk to him to know what kind of situation I was getting into," said Burress, who was released from prison in June.
Technically, they didn't use Rex/the executive side of the organization, but they used Tone to recruit Plax, and Tone vouched for Rex like none other, per Plax in a different interview, and Tone gave him a bunch of different insights, too. Apparently Tone sold him on everything from "we care about each other like a family, Rex is the best thing since sliced bread-- all the way to, we have the best facility, the best food in our cafeteria, the best trainers, the best..." I think Plax even said in one interview Tone sold the overall talent on the roster hard, and talked the abilities of the players up. Plax said he threw Tone a curve ball asking him something like, roughly how many of your starters were first round or top round draft picks-- and apparently, he said, Tone even had an answer for that, and wasn't thrown off. The minute Tone signed his contract, they handed over Plax's phone number and told Tone to make it happen. Seriously. Other articles mentioned this, but, for a quote confirming, here's what Rod Boone said... "Ryan had Holmes serve as the Jets' spokesman during their pursuit of Burress, believing he was the perfect man for the job." So, maybe not the "organization," but Holmes did the speaking on our behalf during that, Plax was definitely recruited and talked to "someone."
Of all the reasons, this seems to be right on the money (no Pun intended) Guaranteed money is the best money of all.
Aso wanted to play for the Jets and said it publicly. Didn't happen though, but I still think a lot of players still wanna play for the Jets. Do we know how much Jets offered Aso?
http://www.thejetsblog.com/2011/08/25/burress-jets-players-have-ultimate-respect-for-rex-ryan/ :metal:
thats just plain filthy fun. It's like all of the guys who play on this team go home and mastubate to the guy. These guys love Rex in such a way thats probably a little disturbing... Rex is fucking amazing.
That's ridiculous. He took less money and came here because of Rex, Tone, etc. Rex is our best asset.
How does someone have this many options fresh out of prison? Could have taken more money elsewhere? I just don't get it.
either way im glad the jets have a team that is now considered a top-choice for free agents if they had their druthers.
He leaves out the part that more money = incentive based contracts The Jets offered a guaranteed contract, end of story. In his case at 34 yo, almost 3 years removed from the game, 3 mill guar is a risk, but it can turn out to be a great move. It could also backfire.
