New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress has had one hell of a year. Ever since winning the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots, it seems as though Plax can do nothing right. When he’s not ticking off his coach and getting suspended by his own team for two games, he’s, well actually he’s always making Tom Coughlin mad. When he wakes up in the morning and uses the bathroom Coughlin calls to yell at him for leaving the seat up. “It’s just not considerate,” he screams into the phone.
So it wasn’t exactly a surprise that Coughlin suspended Plaxico for the first quarter of the Giants game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday after he missed a few practices and skipped getting treatment on his injured neck. It was a move a lot of Giants fans support, and a lot of folks in the local media supported it as well. Of course, if you ask Al Sharpton — and really, why wouldn’t you ask him — the NEW YORK POST went over the line.
From the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:
An outraged Rev. Al Sharpton is calling for the New York Post to take immediate action to address a column in Monday’s editions that he called “blatant racism” and a “media lynching.”
Post columnist Steve Serby began his column in Monday’s editions with “Good for Tom Coughlin. Good for Coughlin for tightening the noose around Plaxico Burress.”
In criticizing Burress, Serby used a racially loaded and offensive term, Sharpton told the Daily News. “To make such a blatant racist statement about an African-American football player with a neck injury is completely unacceptable,” Sharpton said. “Clearly, the racial connotation is very disturbing. … This is the verbal reflection of a hanging noose.”
Sharpton said that if the Post did not acknowledge that the column was offensive, he would further highlight the issue but he did not specify what steps he would take. “They have to act swiftly,” Sharpton said. “If we don’t see action, I will lay out exactly what that is … we would like to talk to someone there about whether it was the writer or editor who let this in.”
Seriously, Al? Do you really have nothing better to do right now?
I can understand that Serby probably could have chosen a better way to describe Coughlin’s treatment of Plaxico, but seriously, writing “tightening the noose” makes somebody racist now? Has a white guy never hung from a noose before?
11:22 am on October 28th, 2008
Is there anyone that Sharpton doesn't find racist?
11:27 am on October 28th, 2008
This is hardly like Kelly Tilghman saying other golfers would want to lynch Tiger Woods.
11:28 am on October 28th, 2008
What's he going to do, cancel his subscription?
11:30 am on October 28th, 2008
So Sharpton's saying only black people get hanged? What about all those cattle rustlers & criminals in the Old West? A lot of them were white.
11:39 am on October 28th, 2008
This guy's act has become so tiresome. Most people pretty much ignore him these days.
11:41 am on October 28th, 2008
Thank you, Al Sharpton, for setting back race relations 50 years.
11:46 am on October 28th, 2008
Whether you like it or not, Sharpton still has the right to speak his mind. I actually can kind of see his point about the noose around Plaxico's neck being seen as a racist image of lynching.
11:47 am on October 28th, 2008
The guy is the biigest loser I have seen. He should be sitting next to O.J.
12:22 pm on October 28th, 2008
Com'on! TO, Randy Moss, Keyshawn Johnson and yes Plaxico are all the same. They have and will continue to bounce from team to team because they will not shut up and perform thier jobs! Catch the ball please! No extra currucular activity needed.
12:29 pm on October 28th, 2008
I'm all for civil rights and I hate racism in all its forms. I even plan on voting for Obama.
That said, I'm sick of hearing Sharpton and his whacked-out claims of racism everywhere you turn. It's stunts like his that hurt those who are actually trying to insure equality for everyone.
12:33 pm on October 28th, 2008
Anyone who doesn't like Al Sharpton is racist. There, I said it.
Oh, wait. I meant "Gumbel 2 Gumbel". Sharpton's an idiot.
12:40 pm on October 28th, 2008
I am going to try to keep it short… The only reason Al Sharpton is around is because he thrives on a situation he can turn around and make it an issue of racism.If we keep responding to Sharpton’s pathetic accusations, this fake, will never go away.Why don’t we ever call him out on how he exposes his own race just to put money in his own pocket.He didn’t think the Serby statement was a racist one, he just new it was one more thing to get him in the public eye again. DO NOT apologize for this….better yet, let Steve ask Plaxico if he was offended and I am sure he would say no, then publish that. Geez, I am tired of this…this is going too far. Steve is a good writer and a phony like Sharpton should NEVER have a right to say what he said.HE should be held accountable for inferring this. Do not bow to the pressure and if you have to say something, do it in a way that says how ridiculous this statement/action by Sharpton is. Thanks,Tony Galati
1:15 pm on October 28th, 2008
Isn't the expression "shortening the leash"?
1:18 pm on October 28th, 2008
All this is gonna do is boost the Post's circulation.
1:23 pm on October 28th, 2008
Now this is coming from a true racist!
1:29 pm on October 28th, 2008
Dear Al,
Just shut up.
Signed, the rest of the world.