Super Bowl Notebook | Burress' prediction met with skepticism

Broadway Plaxico just doesn't have the same ring to it as Broadway Joe, the last New York football player to predict a victory in the Super Bowl.

Joe Namath's guarantee came true in Super Bowl III when the Jets upset the Don Shula-led Baltimore Colts, 16-7, to cement his legendary status. So when Giants receiver Plaxico Burress climbed out on the same limb Tuesday by predicting a 23-17 victory over the 18-0 Patriots, the shock waves began to roll.

"I will speak with Plaxico in a private way and that's where it will remain," coach Tom Coughlin said Wednesday.

Coughlin's motto this season of "Talk is cheap. Play the game" was captured on T-shirts.

"It doesn't fit in with the motto," he said.

Burress, who showed up to Wednesday's media session about 45 minutes late with the explanation that he was playing with his son, didn't backpedal like some of the cornerbacks who cover him do.

"What I said is what I said," said Burress, who picked the score because his high-school basketball number was 23 and his current number is 17.

"I believe in my guys just as much as they believe in me. It's very evident. They stand behind me and what I say, and we believe in each other."

Giants defensive end Michael Strahan wasn't bothered by Burress' bulletin-board headline.

"What am I supposed to say, 'No, we are going to lose the game'?" he said. "No, I think we are going to win the game just like they think they are going to win the game.

"I don't look at it and go, 'Plaxico made a prediction and I need to back it up.' "

Most of the Patriots laughed off Burress' prediction.

"What was the score?" Brady asked. "We're only going to score 17 points? Is Plax playing defense?"

NFL teams are only required to report one injury on their participation reports, and with Brady participating fully in practice, the Patriots had no obligation to report anything. Instead they continued to taunt the Giants and truth-seekers everywhere with Brady's shoulder injury, not his ankle injury. Brady admitted earlier this week that he injured his right ankle against the Chargers in the AFC title game; it's been reported to be a slight high ankle sprain.

Jabar Gafney is also dealing with a shoulder injury and had limited participation.

Bill Belichick promised for more than a week that he was "excited" to provide the injury report after Brady was spotted wearing a walking boot in Manhattan last week. On Monday the Patriots practiced in Arizona and Brady had his right ankle heavily taped and played with a slight limp.

According to Wednesday's pool report from Patriots practice, Brady's ankle was not taped outside of his shoe and he was not limping noticeably. The report did mention that the passing game appeared to be "uneven."

Notes

• Want Super Bowl tickets? No, not this year's tickets — tickets for all 41 of the Super Bowls leading up to this one. A collection of unused tickets from every Super Bowl has been sold at auction for $47,263.20. Both the private collector who sold it and the purchaser asked not to be identified by SPC Auctions, the Mission Valley, Calif., company that sold the collection online.

• Arizona star receiver Larry Fitzgerald said it's odd to see the New York Giants using the Cardinals' training facility this week.

"What's even worse, insult to injury, we can't even get into the building right now," Fitzgerald said. "It's like, 'You can't come over this week.' The Giants have got it all locked over there." But he wasn't really serious.

"That's part of it," Fitzgerald said. "We've got to give up our facility. They earned the right to play in the Super Bowl. Whatever we can do to help."