NFL

Eli Manning Was Too Shy To Visit Plaxico Burress In Prison

Also filed under “things we could’ve guessed”: Giants coach Tom Coughlin wasn’t that empathetic about Plaxico shooting himself in the leg.

In a soon-to-be-published interview with Men’s Journal, which took place after he got out of prison and before he recently met with Coughlin privately or Eli Manning at a movie theater, Plaxico Burress let off some steam about the way his former team treated him following his nearly two-year-long incarceration on gun charges.

Eli, who one would assume would not be especially at ease walking into Riker’s Island but probably should’ve gone anyway, didn’t visit his top receiver once. This, understandably, hurt Burress’ feelings:

“I was always his biggest supporter, even days he wasn’t on, ’cause I could sense he didn’t have thick skin,” Burress said. “Then I went away, and I thought he would come see me, but nothing, not a letter, in two years. I don’t want to say it was a slap in the face, but I thought our relationship was better than that.”

On Coughlin’s reaction to the incident.

“After my situation happened, I turned on the TV, and the first words out his mouth was ‘sad and disappointing,’ ” Burress said. “I’m like, forget support — how about some concern? I did just have a bullet in my leg. And then I sat in his office, and he pushed back his chair and goes, ‘I’m glad you didn’t kill anybody!’ Man, we’re paid too much to be treated like kids. He doesn’t realize that we’re grown men and actually have kids of our own.”

None of this is surprising, since Eli once inspired this Onion piece, and Coughlin has long been known for acting like kind of a bastard toward his players. As Burress alluded to, his coaching style is of the “Strict Irish Father” school of yelling at your players until your face turns purple. This is okay when things are good, like when you win the Super Bowl, but not as okay when it’s entirely possible you could lose your injury-plagued team by Christmas.

In regards to Eli: we wish he had visited his former teammate in jail, aw shucks introversion or not. Maybe this is our immaturity showing, but if you hug a guy in the locker room after he helps you win a Super Bowl, and appear to have a cohesive on-field relationship with him, shouldn’t you pay him a visit when he’s at his lowest point?