Good Season Has Erased Bad Reputation for Burress

Jan 31, 07:44 AM

By Tom Robinson

The Virginian-Pilot

Start with past impressions; big, tall, strong and enigmatic. As in 6-foot-5, 232-pound Plaxico Burress is a big, tall and strong puzzle of an NFL wide receiver. That was the media-driven perception - "Plexiglass" Burress was a good one - of Virginia Beach's Burress too often before this football season.

It wasn't just a media figment, either. Bad press wasn't the reason market interest was sluggish when Burress left the Pittsburgh Steelers three years ago. He ultimately signed for six years and $25 million with the New York Giants.

Burress' petulant and pouty reputation was why Giants defensive end Michael Strahan, sparking a locker room drama, chided Burress last year for "quitting" on a play during a loss.

Look, though, where we are - impressionistically speaking - with Burress three days before the Super Bowl: big, tall, strong and unstoppable. As in, Plaxico Burress is a beast. A winning, big-game receiver and a loyal teammate who has gone extra lengths for them and for himself.

"His desire has always been to be a player his teammates can count on," Giants coach Tom Coughlin told reporters recently.

Perhaps it was a long time coming, but at age 30, with a wife, Tiffany, and 1-year-old son, Elijah, Burress has proven personally mature. In his eighth season, he has proven professionally consistent.

And by enduring leg and hand injuries that would have scuttled the seasons of many players, Burress has proven physically and mentally tougher than anyone knew.

Burress didn't practice most of the season after tearing an ankle ligament in Week 2. He has had a bad finger and a bum knee, yet he never missed a game. He caught 70 balls, in fact, his third-best total, and scored a career-high 12 touchdowns. Burress' dedicated effort was a huge factor in Giants quarterback Eli Manning's own retooled reputation as a poised field leader.

And as Burress heads into his first Super Bowl - his mending ankle at what he meticulously called 97 percent strength this week - he goes with the image of a career-defining game on a sub-zero Wisconsin night fresh in America's mind.

In that NFC title contest, Burress won a rabid man-to-man battle with Green Bay Packers cornerback Al Harris, caught a career-best 11 passes for 154 yards and lifted himself to the warmest acclaim of his career. A career that one man in particular saw coming more than a decade ago.

"I keep telling him he's the Michael Jordan of wide receivers in the NFL," said Elisha "Cadillac" Harris, who coached Burress at Green Run High School in the early 1990s.

If Harris, who now coaches at Indian River, sounds like Burress' No. 1 fan outside his immediate family, it's because he is. Harris was and remains a rock for Burress.

Burress didn't know his father when he was in high school, his mother died suddenly in 2002 and Burress, who was arrested for public intoxication in Virginia Beach that year, acknowledges running with a suspect crowd.

Harris always helped him through. When Burress tried to quit football as a sophomore, Harris convinced him he could be great .

And when Burress and the Giants take on the New England Patriots on Sunday night in Glendale, Ariz., Harris, his wife Bonita and 19- year-old daughter Courtney will be there as Burress' guests.

"His appreciation for people that have been part of his life, he's always been very real with that," Harris said.

That's apparent at Thanksgiving, when Burress regularly returns to Virginia Beach to buy and distribute food for charity. That willingness to remember his roots has polished Burress' local profile.

His universal image is what needed a lot of buffing. It's gratifying to Harris that Burress handled that challenge this season by persevering through personal and team hardships.

"He's started his own family now; he recognizes what's important to him," Harris said. "He's prioritized his life - God, family and football. That's why he's having so much success."

There is that. But speaking to reporters this week about his feel- good season, Burress, whom The Virginian-Pilot was unable to reach, credited his comfort level with his team - "I love the fans, I love the organization and I love the guys that I play with." - and the power of his competitiveness.

"I got frustrated at times, but I stayed faithful within myself and went out and competed the best I could," he said. "It wasn't always what I wanted it to be, but I didn't make excuses, didn't complain. I just went out and played the hand I was dealt."

Three weeks ago, Burress told the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., that he considered ankle surgery a month into the season, when his frustration peaked, before electing to continue playing.

Doing so, Burress said, "was a blessing for me." Although he was unable to practice, Burress said he became a better and smarter player as the schedule wore on through spending extra time in film and playbook study.

"The amazing thing is his number of mental errors has been at an absolute minimum," Coughlin said.

The same can be said, for once, of Burress' missteps in general. Any that have come in this season of renewal have been trumped by the depth of Burress' hunger and the courage of his confidence.

"We are all human, we make decisions and we make bad choices," Burress said this week. "But I guess that's what makes you who you are. I am very happy with who I am."

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518 or tom.robinson@pilotonline.com

(c) 2008 Virginian - Pilot. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved. Good Season Has Erased Bad Reputation for Burress
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