NFL

Giants coach may pay visit to Plaxico

ORLANDO, Fla. — Coach Tom Coughlin all but sealed the door on the Giants ever bringing back Plaxico Burress, but the imprisoned receiver could soon have a familiar visitor.

Coughlin said yesterday that he is considering a jailhouse trip to see Burress, who is in the midst of a two-year sentence in upstate Rome on second-degree weapons charges.

Giants quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan and Burress’ former teammate, Michael Strahan, have both visited him in recent weeks. Coughlin hasn’t had any contact with Burress since his ugly departure from the Giants last year, but the coach isn’t ruling it out.

“Perhaps,” Coughlin said when asked if he might visit. “We’ve talked about it, quite frankly.”

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Burress is behind bars after accidentally shooting himself in the thigh at a Manhattan nightclub in late 2008 with a gun unlicensed in the state of New York.

Burress is in protective custody at the Oneida Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Rome, and he could be freed by the spring of 2011.

Burress has vowed to play again after his release, but not surprisingly, Coughlin made it clear the Giants don’t have interest in bringing him back.

“You never say never, but that part [re-signing him] hasn’t been discussed,” Coughlin said during the NFC coaches breakfast on the final day of the NFL’s annual meetings. “I would expect that he would get a chance [with another team]. I mean, you’re talking about a rare talent.”

Coughlin also said he was “very sad” by Burress’ self-created plight.

“I’m hoping that he has an opportunity to come home quickly,” Coughlin said of Burress, who recently was denied his bid for early release. “I hope he’s paid his dues, because he does have a young boy and a young daughter, and he’s needed.

“I just think that’s a real sad event that took place,” Coughlin added. “That’s not to say it’s undeserved. I hope he comes out a better person and has the ability to look at these things in terms and see all that you have to see as far as making the right decisions and right choices.”

Coughlin said he has kept tabs on Burress since the Pro Bowl receiver was sent to prison. Coughlin noted Strahan’s prison visit last weekend and a national TV interview Burress conducted in February with his former Steelers coach, Bill Cowher.

“I will play again,” Burress said during the CBS interview that aired the day of the Super Bowl.

Burress told Cowher that he works out four times weekly to prepare for his comeback bid.

“It’s not LA Fitness or Bally’s, but I do push-ups, sit-ups,” Burress said in the interview. “I make do.”

Burress also said he wrote Giants owners John Mara and Steve Tisch to apologize.

“I told them how sorry I was about bringing all this bad publicity to such a stand-up organization,” Burress told Cowher.