A day after the “fake shot heard ’round the world,” the Jets still were reacting to Stevie Johnson’s touchdown celebration that mocked Plaxico Burress on Sunday.
Several Jets took issue with the antics of the Bills wide receiver, but Burress was not one of them. In an interview with 1050 ESPN Radio, the Jets receiver said he and Johnson had spoken to each other and he did not have a problem with Johnson pretending to shoot himself in the leg — a reference to Burress’ nightclub shooting three years ago. Johnson apologized to Burress.
“He’s young, and he made a mistake,” Burress said of the 25-year-old. “I don’t look at him as any less than he was before. And I don’t want everybody just to say he’s a bad guy because he made a mistake. I’ve made a few in my life.”
Burress said Johnson told him he was just trying to have fun and bring some life to the game.
“I don’t think he took into consideration everything that happened to me when he did it,” Burress said. “And I think a day later he’s realized what he did and how he made himself look, and he embarrassed his team, his organization, his players, his coaches and different things like that. But those are things you learn — it’s being young and being immature at times.”
Burress said a younger version of himself would not have reacted as well.
“Oh, man, I probably would have met him outside before he got on his bus,” he said.
Burress’ teammates were not quite as forgiving as he was. Jets coach Rex Ryan called Johnson’s act “ridiculous.” Nose tackle Sione Pouha took issue not only with Johnson mocking Burress but then acting as if he was a plane crashing to the ground, a takeoff on the Jets’ “Fly Boys” celebration. Pouha felt it was insensitive to the victims of 9/11.
“Us being from New York, we like to hold ourselves to some integrity, and that airplane thing, in my opinion, was kind of a dagger considering the circumstances of remembrance of what we just had on Sept. 11,’’ Pouha said. “It was just unprofessional. We all stand for pride around here, and that’s a sacred moment for a lot of people and it’s a very sobering moment.’’
A few Jets tweaked Johnson for his drop on the final drive of the game.
“He didn’t make the catches,’’ Pouha said. “Your number gets called and opportunities come your way and he didn’t make the catch. He didn’t get the win.
“We saw the stuff he did, mocking Plaxico. At the end of the day, our receivers made the plays, making the big catches, and he didn’t make it. He shot himself at the end of the game [because] he didn’t win it. I don’t know which shot was worse.’’
Cornerback Darrelle Revis called Johnson “young and immature.” Revis was covering Johnson on the touchdown catch.
“It had nothing to do with the situation,’’ Revis said. “If anything, he scored on me, so come at me if anything. That’s just wrong. It wasn’t smart on his part, doing the gun thing and shooting himself. That was just disrespectful to Plaxico.’’