Team-oriented Giants won't miss Plaxico Burress

Dec. 1--LANDOVER, Md. -- The New York Giants are a franchise that preaches team first, last and always. No one player is bigger than the team.

Their Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Strahan learned that in 2007 when he spent the summer threatening to retire. The Giants told him to go ahead, that the team was moving on without him. He decided to play and won a Super Bowl ring.

Pro Bowl tight end Jeremy Shockey learned it last summer when the Giants grew tired of his act as a malcontent and traded him to the New Orleans Saints.

Now it might be Plaxico Burress' turn. He was a Super Bowl hero for the Giants, catching the winning touchdown pass in the final minute against the New England Patriots.

Burress then engaged in a difficult contract renegotiation last off-season and summer that saw him sit out practices while the matter was being resolved. So the club's patience began growing thin with its star receiver even as the Giants were signing Burress to a five-year, $35 million contract.

In September, Burress didn't show up for work one Monday, so the Giants suspended him for the Seattle game.

Strike 1.

In October, he skipped a mandatory treatment session for an injury. So the Giants benched him in the Pittsburgh game.

Strike 2.

Last weekend, Burress accidentally shot himself in the right thigh at a crowded New York nightclub. The gun reportedly was unregistered. He spent part of Sunday in a hospital getting the wound addressed and is expected to turn himself into New York police on Monday. Is that Strike 3?

Burress had already been ruled out of Sunday's game with the Washington Redskins because of a hamstring injury. The gunshot wound was to the same leg. The Giants didn't miss him a bit Sunday as Eli Manning passed for 300 yards for the first time this season in a 23-7 shellacking of the Redskins.

It was the same story when Burress sat out the Seattle game in the opening month of the season. The Giants enjoyed their best offensive day of the season, rolling up 523 yards and 44 points without him in a romp over the Seahawks.