(a rare photo of Plax not catching a football, shooting himself in the leg or ignoring phone calls from Jeff Feagles in the Lowe’s parking lot)
Do any of us really care about Giants punter Jeff Feagles being slighted? Probably not, but if the slight in question provides a national magazine (and by extension, this blog) an opportunity to kick firearms felon / WR Plaxico Burress when he’s down, let the cutting and pasting commence. As such, I have no idea what would possess Sports Ilustrated’s Matt Dollinger to approach Feagles on the matter of the various jersey numbers he’s worn during a 23 year NFL tenure, but assuming no one cares about Plax adjusting to a post-prison life, here’s the story :
Feagles admits he’s never been too attached to his number. He’d worn No. 10 for as long as he could remember, but didn’t mind handing it over to a rookie when the Giants drafted Eli Manning in 2004.
As is customary in the NFL, Manning compensated Feagles for the numeral — but not with a load of cash. Instead, the rookie sent the veteran and his family on a week-long, all-expenses-paid vacation to Florida.
After giving Manning his number, Feagles was headed into his 17th season in the league. Thus, he decided to switch to No. 17 as a tribute. But a year later another new teammate came knocking for his number. This time it was Plaxico Burress, who had signed with the Giants on March 17 and thought it would be fitting for him to wear No. 17 for his new team.
“I said, ‘you know what, why don’t we do the same deal that I did with Eli,'” Feagles said. “Except I’m kind of re-doing my outdoor kitchen, so I basically told him if he could pay for it we’d be good.”
Instead of striking the deal himself with Feagles, Burress unleashed his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, to negotiate the exchange.
With Burress wearing No. 17, Feagles was numberless once again. In search of his third number in three years, he went with No. 18, this time in honor of his 18th season in the league.
Three years later, Burress is no longer a Giant and Feagles ended up financing his own kitchen. Feagles told SI.com recently that Burress (who was released by the Giants in 2009) stiffed him.
“I never got paid for it,” Feagles said. “I asked [Burress] for it. Every time I went to Drew he said, ‘That’s between you and Plax.’ Bottom line, I never got paid. He basically stole my number.”
Are we to believe that Feagles has never had professional representation of his own? Or that presenting his former teammate with an invoice would be so difficult? What’s the worst thing that could happen? It’s not as though Plax has proven himself to be an expert marksman.
That is funny
He’s a punter. Does he really need a number? Dude come on!
Just goes to show what a low-life Burress is.
Some people are just not raised to live up to their word. They obviously come from families that lie, cheat, and steal from each other without remorse. My dad would have whacked any of us in the head if we broke a promise or failed to do what we said we would do. Unfortunely, this is why we must have attorneys and most of them are deadbeats as the case of Drew Rosenhaus.
just goes to show that once an asshole always an asshole
he ruined his teams chances of repeating as champs due to his lack of brains and sense of personal responsibility.
would the steelers have let a player with his skills go if it wasnt because of a lack of character? did he learn anything from this? why was he such a problem while with with the giants making team meetings on time like any other employee?
is referring a teammate who had no obligation to give up his number to his agent to get paid for the courtesy extended the way one should conduct himself?
typical ghetto bullshit. let him rot in jail instead of taking care of his family with the immense skills he was lucky enough to be born with
“he ruined his teams chances of repeating as champs due to his lack of brains and sense of personal responsibility.”
they’d never have won in ’08 were it not for Burress. Keep in mind, we don’t know Plax’s side of the jersey number story. It seems like Feagles has made a small mint out of being paid for absolutely nothing — with an NFL career in tatters, Burress is well advised to hang on to his money. If there’s a binding agreement with Feagles, let the punter supply a PDF. Since this has turned into an easy excuse to dump on the every unpopular Drew Rosenhaus, remember, please that Feagles’ own agent, Steve Weinberg, has his own unique ethical history.
http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2003/02/24/story8.html
“typical ghetto bullshit. let him rot in jail instead of taking care of his family with the immense skills he was lucky enough to be born with”
uh, yeah. typical internet troll racist bullshit. Persons who don’t honor their debts are hardly unique to the ghetto. “would the steelers have let a player with his skills go if it wasnt because of a lack of character? ” Tremendous argument, sir. The Steelers allowed Plaxico to leave as a free agent because their crystal ball told them he’d stiff Jeff Feagles someday. The same crystal ball failed to warn them Big Ben would accused of rape on two occasions, but presumably they’ll let their skilled QB go just as soon as the sexual assault allegations against him reach a half dozen.
I don’t really care about the story, but as a Giants fan, its a story I’d read even if it didn’t involve a jailed superstar. In fact, what I take actual issue with (again, as a Giants fan) is the author’s initial question about whether “any of us really care about Giants punter Jeff Feagles being slighted?”
I don’t know if te author means that since he is just a punter, or if he means that this is a factoid only a Giants fan would be interested in. The latter, no problem. The former…is a problem. Because it betray a lack of fairly common football knowledge.
Jeff Feagles is not just a punter. He’s not even just a punter who holds several significant records.
Jeff Feagles was basically the MVP of the Giants last Superbowl season. This is not a crazy theory by a Feagles fan. I didn’t folloFeagles or know much about him before he joined the Giants. But I watch every game, and in 2007, Feagles was the reason we won some of those games. Many Giants fans might not have thought much about it, but if you ask them about Jeff Feagles contribution that SuperBowl year, they will more than likely rate him as one of the top 3 players on the team.
Not just a punter. This year, we have “just a punter” Pay attention, and you’ll see the difference.
Oh, the trials and tribulations of an NFL Punter. Can you imagine having to cook INDOORS, ALL THE TIME!?
As usual, those in defense of Mr. Burress missed the entire point of the article. Perhaps, you should slow down when you read so you don’t miss anything.
The author CLEARLY stated that it is CUSTOMARY for players to compensate another player when wanting their jersey as their own. This is not indicative of Mr. Feagles…I’ve read many a story over the last 30 years were a new player wants the number they’ve always worn and paid some lower skilled player for the privledge of taking the number!
That said, Mr. Burress is a punk, plain and simple and this clearly demonstrates the lack of parenting he had as a young child. Right is right and wrong is wrong. Regardless of whether Mr. Burress was man enough to make the arrangement himself or the coward he is by passing the buck on such a simple agreement to his over paid agent, is beside the point.
GC, you’ve got a lot to learn. Despite what you think, a verbal agreement and/or handshake still holds legal water, although more difficult to prove if there were no witnesses. However, a real man would honor his word. Those that don’t can be labeled with a variety of labels…loser, scank, deadbeat, punk, dishonest, liar, etc.
I CAN’T BELIEVE WITH ALL THE MONEY THAT AGENTS MAKE,THAT DREW DIDN.T HAVE ENOUGH GONADS TO PAY FOR FEAGLES PROJECT.YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME !!!!!!!!!!!!
The picture above…..is worth 1,000 words….enough said !!
what i mean, Nick, is that I don’t give a hoot if he’s Eli/Phil Simms/LT/Mark Bavaro all glued together. Whining to the press about a uniform number not being paid for seems rather petty, and I sincerely doubt the story would’ve received nearly as much play (or this blog’s cutting and pasting of said story been linked by Fox fucking Sports) had it not concerned the easiest target of all, Plaxico Burress. If Plax can’t be reached for a comment right now, perhaps that’s because HE’S SERVING TWO YEARS on a trumped up charge. Fuck you.
BP, I thank you for at least having the common decency not to use the word “ghetto” to describe Plax’s inability to pay up.
I’m closing the comments on this thread because all this new traffic is depressing the hell out of me. Shouldn’t some of you numbskulls be throwing rocks at the former Burlington Coat Factory?