Giants WR Plaxico Burress was benched for the 2nd half of yesterday’s crushing defeat to Seattle, and he seemed pretty contrite, as quoted by the New York Post’s Steve Serby.

“I let my team down,” Burress said after Seahawks 42, Giants 30. “I went out there and had two turnovers. If I wouldn’t have made those turnovers, we probably could have won the football game. “Those things I put on me. I’m not gonna sit here and make excuses. I chose to go out there and play, and that was the outcome of the way I played. You better believe that when I come back in two weeks [after the bye] I’ll be ready.”

Burress let an Eli Manning pass slip through his fingers that was intercepted by Michael Boulware early in the second quarter. Regarding his fumble, Burress said: “The guy just came over and stripped the ball away. It had nothing to do with my back.” What a difference a week makes. Burress was one of the heroes of the Giants’ comeback victory over the Eagles when he caught the 31-yarder in overtime.

“I was out there just giving everything I had,” Burress said, “but it just wasn’t enough.”

Burress said he could have continued to play. “I’m not gonna go out there and hurt myself in one game,” he said. “I’m looking at the big picture, not just trying to go out there and kill myself to get through one game.”

The above explanation, however, isn’t enough for AOL Sports’ resident medical expert Michael David Smith.

Burress missed most of last week’s practices with a back injury, but if he was healthy enough to play at all yesterday, he was healthy enough to give an effort worthy of his contract.

How exactly is it, that Smith or anyone else, quantifies effort? Was Burress tanking it because that’s what Tom Coughlin would have us believe? Smith considers Burress’ salary ($25 million over six years — as though he’ll ever see the end of that deal) relevant in this discussion, as though earning crazy loot precludes a player from serious injury.

Had Burress begged out of starting yesterday, he’d be catching serious heat. Unless and until I’m willing to post YouTube video of myself absorbing a serious beating (and no matter how often you ask for it, it’s still not gonna happen), I have a funny thing about questioning another man’s threshold for pain.

Smith nominated Burress for “Overpaid Player Of The Week.” If he’s putting up with Coughlin’s breath, I think Plaxico deserves a raise.

I haven’t read most of Monday’s injury news yet, but it appears as though the Bengals’ Chris Henry has an upset stomach.

After failing to seal the deal against the Bears yesterday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Kevin Seifert reports on the Vikings’ mature ‘tude in coping with defeat.

Several players inexplicably took time from their postgame routine to complain about a full-page photo of Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher in Sunday morning’s Star Tribune. Although the accompanying story chronicled the Vikings’ progress on defense, and, most importantly, had nothing to do with the outcome of the game, some Vikings took offense that Urlacher was the visual emphasis. Even Childress fell victim to the pettiness, spending only 2 minutes and 11 seconds in his postgame news conference. Scheduling confusion left many reporters unaware that he had entered the Vikings’ interview room; Childress answered only three questions and ended the session as reporters were still arriving, leaving many of the game’s key issues unaddressed by the purported singular voice of the franchise.