How is anyone giving Plaxico Burress any guff for predicting his Giants would beat the Patriots 23-17 in the Super Bowl? Seriously, what do you expect him to say?
This week, during one of the approximately 123,084 media sessions where players are forced to meet with reporters, Burress gave the score in response to a question asking what the game's outcome would be.
For some reason, this didn't go over very well. Tom Brady acted as if you had called his woman a whore, and Giants coach Tom Coughlin promised a quiet man to man talking to. Why?
Players are forced to meet with the media, and the media (needing a story) set up players with leading questions so they can make their deadline. It goes sorta like this:
Reporter: Plax, do you think you guys are going win Sunday?
Plax: Yeah, we'll win.
Reporter: You think you're going to win? Would you guarantee it?
Plax: Yeah, whatever, I guarantee it, we'll win.... 23-17
Reporter: Thanks, Plax.
Later......
Reporter: Hey, Tom Brady, did you hear what Plax said about beating you Sunday?
Brady: No, what he say?
Reporter: He says they're going to win 23-17 and that you're gay.
Brady: That fucker.
BAM. Instant story.
This is what the media does, they manipulate and create stories from thin air. What else was Plax going to say? Of course he thinks his team is going to win, and of course he has to guarantee it- what else is he going to say- that he thinks they have a good shot but it all comes down to how much pressure they get on Brady and if they can knock Randy Moss off his routes?!
As for Coughlin getting pissed and reading Plax the riot act for giving Brady and the Pats bulletin board fodder, that's nonsense. Do you seriously think the Patriots were lacking motivation in the Super Bowl? Like Plaxico's score prediction is going to get them up more for the game.
Instead of being all over Burress for being so bold as to predict the team he plays for is going to win the biggest game of his professional life, why don't we just call bullshit on the media for once again creating a story where there isn't one. This, along with all the other comical nonsense that was part of this year's Super Bowl Media Day, is proof enough that there should be no week in between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. It simply leaves the media with too much time on their hands to hype a game which should stand on its own as simply the World Championship of Professional Football.
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