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NFL Super Bowl Notebook: Burress interview a CBS highlight
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CBS' 41/2-hour buildup to kickoff will include an interview Bill Cowher did with Plaxico Burress in prison last week. Burress agreed to the interview only if Cowher, his former coach with the Steelers, was the questioner.
"I think you will see he blames no one but himself and is very genuine in his feeling," Cowher told Newsday. "I thought he spoke direct from his heart.
"He looked me in the eye more than he did in my five years of conversations with him in Pittsburgh. I didn't have a bad relationship with him. He was a guy who kind of walked the line and wouldn't cross it. But he'd get real close to it."
In excerpts provided by CBS, Burress says he wrote a letter to Giants executives John Mara and Steve Tisch apologizing for "bringing all this bad publicity to such a stand-up organization."
Burress also says he works out four days a week. "It's not LA Fitness or Bally's but I do push-ups, sit-ups, I make do," he says.
He also vows, "I will play again."
Burress, 32, won't be released until the spring of 2011.
As a sidebar to today's game, Indianapolis kicker Matt Stover, who turned 42 last week, will become the oldest player to appear in a Super Bowl. To put in perspective how old he is, he already owns a Super Bowl ring ... from Super Bowl XXV (that's 1991 for you pagans) when the Giants beat the Bills. "Some of the guys said, 'Whoa, I was 3 years old during that one,' " Stover said this week. The Colts called on Stover after Adam Vinatieri was injured early in the season.
Even though Vinatieri won't be in uniform tonight, it in no way lessens the magic of his career. Consider: He has been in the NFL for 14 seasons; six -- or nearly half -- have ended in the Super Bowl. "I've definitely been blessed," he said. "The fact that a lot of people play their entire careers to try to get to this game, it's really something that you can say 'congratulations' to our team and the Saints. ... Every time you make it here, it's a blessing."
Colts star defensive end Dwight Freeney watched the Colts' final Super Bowl practice from a golf cart yesterday, and it's still uncertain whether he will play today. He has not practiced since tearing a ligament in his right ankle late in the AFC title game.
Colts quarterback Peyton Manning is already a wealthy man, and he'll be making a pile more of money in the not-too-distant future. Colts owner Jim Irsay said a new contract soon will be in the works. Manning's current deal runs through 2010. "It'll get done," Irsay said. Manning, 33, signed a contract in 2004 worth $98 million. A new deal would likely pay him $20 million a season. And the rich do get richer. Manning makes $13 million more a year in endorsements. If the Colts win, Bloomberg News reports that figure could increase by 25 percent.
NFL owners met for several hours yesterday to discuss the labor situation with the players. No progress was reported. ... Tonight's game will be the last for Colts offensive line coach Howard Mudd, who is retiring. "To have that be your last game is pretty cool," Mudd said. ... Colts coach Jim Caldwell got his big coaching break at Penn State when Joe Paterno made him his receivers coach in 1986. "I worked for him for seven years and I think he's one of the finest teachers in the game," Caldwell said. ... CBS' broadcast of Super Bowl XLIV will culminate the network's 50th season (not consecutively) of doing NFL games.
First Published February 7, 2010 12:00 am
