NEW YORK — Plaxico Burress is critical of Giants coach Tom Coughlin, quarterback Eli Manning and fans for the way they reacted when he was sent to prison on a gun charge.
Before he signed with the Jets, the receiver said he wished Coughlin had shown some concern when he met with him after accidentally shooting himself in the leg in November 2008. He saw the Giants coach on television commenting on the situation “and the first words out his mouth was ‘sad and disappointing.’ “
“I’m like, forget support — how about some concern?” Burress said in the October issue of Men’s Journal. “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.”
He also told the magazine, which hits newsstands next week, that Coughlin is “not a real positive coach.”
“I am really not all that concerned,” Coughlin said Friday.
Burress said he was disappointed Manning never visited him or tried to communicate with him while he served his 20-month prison sentence.
While in prison, Burress said he was treated “like a . . . ax murderer” and got many letters from people that were less than positive.
“I was a human pincushion,” Burress said. “They were like, ‘Yeah, we finally got you.’ “
