Stevie Johnson received the attention he was looking for when he mocked Plaxico Burress' nightclub shooting incident during a touchdown celebration Sunday. Unfortunately for the Bills wide receiver, the joke ended up being on him.
Johnson drew a 15-yard penalty for excessive celebration, an outcome that angered Bills coach Chan Gailey and left the receiver believing he cost his team the game.
"I was just having fun, and part of having fun ended up being a penalty and a touchdown for the Jets," Johnson said after the Bills lost, 28-24. "It was a stupid decision by myself."
Burress, who spent nearly two years in prison for the event Johnson mimicked, more or less took the high ground when asked about the TD celebration. Still, the Jets receiver couldn't help but get in a dig on Johnson, who had two crucial misses on Buffalo's final possession.
"I've seen worse, and I've heard worse," Burress said. "So, it doesn't bother me at all. The result I'm looking at is we won the football game ... and he turned around and dropped three wide-open balls to lose it for his team."
On Buffalo's final drive, Johnson was wide open on the pass from the New York 47 and got both hands on the ball inside the Jets' 25. But the ball rattled off his hands for a killer drop.
On NFL Network
"NFL Replay" will re-air the
Jets' 28-24 win over the
Bills on Tuesday, Nov. 29
at 8 p.m. ET.
"I didn't react fast enough," Johnson said. "It could have been a touchdown."
Most Jets players said they didn't see Johnson's TD celebration, though tight end Dustin Keller was vocal in his criticism.
"It's just stupid. It's embarrassing," Keller told NFL Network's Albert Breer. "It's not something you do, you mock a guy. That was the roughest time he'd ever been through and you mock that. I'm embarrassed for him. You don't do something like that."
In an NFL season that has missed the imagination of Terrell Owens (unemployed) and Chad Ochocinco (whereabouts unknown), Johnson's celebration was entertaining, if not a tad cold-blooded. Hopefully the league gives him a pass here on the condition he no longer recreates felony crime scenes involving NFL players.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
