The answer should be very simple and yet it isn't.
Why the question even has to be asked in theory should be ridiculous on its own merit.
Yet, the authorities for the time being have had their say. On March 31 of next year, troubled (more like, idiot) Giants receiver Plaxico Burress is going to be facing a hearing and eventually a judge for what happened on Friday night at Latin Quarter in Manhattan.
Burress has pleaded not guilty, even though we know he is. Unless he actually believes (and maybe he does) that someone else pulled the trigger of the illegal firearm that he brought into the club, then shot himself with as he was holding a drink in his other hand.
Maybe it’s like OJ trying to find the real killers or something. Perhaps he knows something we all don't.
But for right now, he claims not to be guilty and he'll have his day in court in four months. Once he is rehabilitated and cleared to play (he says two weeks), the Giants will have a decision to make if they, or the NFL haven't made it yet.
What do they do about Plaxico Burress?
The easy answer is should be simple:
Sit him down for the rest of the season.
However, just doing that is not as simple as it may seem.
Sure, the juggernaut of train that has been the defending world champions appears to have been getting along just fine without him. In his absence in three games, the team has averaged nearly 35 points per game. Also, those three games coincidentally happen to be the games in which Eli Manning has played his best football of the season.
It does seem very simple: Rid yourself of Burress and just move on.
The problem is it isn’t.
There is no secret that the Giants have tolerated his antics all season, even going as far as suspending him for the Seattle game several weeks ago. The problem is this team made a deal with the devil when they signed him before the 2005 season. They knew this immensely talented player had tremendous character issues from his years with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
You think it was an accident no NFL team in the league looked to sign him? The Giants were able to get him at a bargain basement price. They knew his checkered past dating all the way back to college. He was never a model citizen. If you were taking him, you were taking everything else that came along with it.
And you know what? The Giants did not care.
He was signed for one simple reason - because they felt he could help them win football games.
That’s it.
And he did. A lot of them.
They have made the playoffs in every year since he’s been on the team. Last year, with one healthy ankle, he helped lead them to the playoffs.
In the NFC Championship in Green Bay with conditions of -25 wind chill on that one good ankle, he put on perhaps the greatest performance any receiver has ever had in that game leading the Giants to the Super Bowl.
And it was in the Super Bowl where he badly faked out cornerback Ellis Hobbs for game winning touchdown and helped the team pull off the greatest upset in history to beat the Patriots.
He was rewarded with a new contract that was creatively crafted by the team to prevent against any crazy stuff. This season, they won more than any Giants team has ever had before. While his statistics will not show it, a large part of the reason for the team because as successful as they have been has been in part because of him.
You don’t believe so? Go back to the tape and take a second look at these games. I didn’t want to believe it either.
However, on second look, it is obvious how much the defense changes their alignment when he is in the game. He is double-teamed on every play.
You want to know why he has hasn’t been able to get deep?
Because the defense will not allow it. The safety is consistently playing over the top of the cornerback because they know if left one-on-one with Burress, most times they will get beat.
The defenses fear of him beating them and commanding two people has played an instrumental role in the ridiculous success of the teams running game. Because of the attention paid to him, the game his turned in a “nine-on-nine” battle. The Giants 9 has been (and is) better than any other team’s nine. Placing any other receiver does not allow for the same alignment.
Want to know why Steve Smith and Kevin Boss have found wide seams in the middle of the defense?
Because of Burress.
The coverage on him has allowed (in some ways forced) Manning to look at other receivers and utilize the whole field as opposed to force-feeding. This has made him a better quarterback and in turn, the Giants a better team.
The Giants know this. They have freely admitted as much. This is why they have been very willing to tolerate his nonsense.
They’re not stupid.
It is likely that the NFL will hand down a four game suspension to Burress for violating the league’s conduct policy. Assuming the Giants do not unilaterally take action and either suspend him or put him on the non-football injury list, the schedule lines up to where if he were to be suspended, he would be eligible to return for the playoffs.
Do the Giants choose to cut their losses and make him sit for the rest of the season? Or do they choose to bring back a player who will be (presumably) healthy and not charged with any crimes back to the team knowing that their chances of winning back-to-back titles are greater with him than without him?
Here’s the bottom line: If you believe that the Giants organization are choirboys when it comes to their players, you are wrong. Mind you, this was the same team that tolerated Lawrence Taylor’s consistent off field issues during his career.
Why?
Because he could help them win on Sunday. And they won a lot with him – including two championships.
The Giants drafted Ahmad Bradshaw last year knowing his laundry list of off the field issues that he had in college. He still has one month of a prison sentence that he has to serve after this season is over. Still, the team chose to take him anyway.
Why?
Because he was talented and could eventually help the team win on Sunday's.
Kareem McKenzie was arrested for DUI just two weeks ago (an offensive to me on the same level as Burress with a gun) and started at right tackle for the team three days later against Arizona.
Why?
Because he could help the team win.
The fact that he apologized profusely should not have mattered. Just like Burress, he was wielding a deadly weapon (his car) and could have easily killed someone.
For some reason, this offense by most fans was swept under the rug, deemed insignificant because he was a “good guy” as if that qualifies as a pass.
At the end of the day, the “W” is what it’s all about. This is not college here. This is not Duke Basketball or Northwestern Football and you keep your programs clean.
This is the NFL. In this league, you get a short window to win before the salary cap and free agency strips you of your players. When you have your greatest chance to win, you seize it and milk it for everything its worth.
The Giants know this.
Burress helps the team win and it will be up to them to decide whether they will take a moral stand by sitting him down and attempt to win it all without him. Or if winning truly does come first.
If they win it all, no one is going to say five years from now the following:
“Yeah, that was the year they kept Plaxico on the team despite having that gun issue. I was offended.”
Vince Lombardi once had a famous saying:
Winning isn’t every thing, it’s the only thing.
Words were never truer.
It may not be the popular sentiment among fans that are normally fickle and quick to rant to internet message boards and sports talk radio about wanting to jettison Burress. Emotion is a very powerful thing.
However, the Giants organization does not work on emotion. They work in the business of winning.
It is why the decision the make on Plaxico’s future with the team is not as easy as some people may want to think it is.
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