Tom Coughlin heard that Plaxico Burress criticized his coaching style earlier this week. It hasn't fazed the New York Giants coach, however. Like his team, Coughlin seems to have moved on from the veteran wide receiver.
"I don't pay any attention to it," Coughlin said in Thursday's New York Post. "It is what it is. Maybe he's sending me along a badge of honor. How do I know?"
Burress -- who was released from prison on June 6 after serving a nearly two-year sentence on gun charges -- described his relationship with Coughlin as "ambivalent," feeling the Giants coach didn't communicate well enough.
"This is not college. This is professional sports," Burress said. "If you can't sit down and go talk to a man that you are busting your tail for, not even have the respect for anything that you have to say, like I said, the only thing I knew then was to rebel."
Coughlin was at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, where his seven-year-old grandson, Dylan, was an honorary batboy for the home team. Now entering his eighth season with the Giants, Coughlin made it clear he was rooting for Burress, the player who made the game-winning touchdown grab in Super Bowl XLII.
"As I've said many times, I'll stay with the same line: I hope he gets some normalcy in his life and has a chance to spend some time with his family and that he gets to know his kids once again," Coughlin said. "His wife has done a tremendous job of holding that family together for the last two years. She deserves some help."
Regarding the lockout, the football lifer said he doesn't "feel fulfilled" without a team to coach. Coughlin knows his job only gets more difficult as days continue to fall off the calendar without a team structure.
"We're getting anxious," he told The Post. "We've seen so much time come and go. I try not to look back at our rookies, the fact that we haven't even had the chance to teach them what our expectation level is. These guys are being hurt more than anyone else."
