"All has just about gone back to normal for Plaxico Burress - as normal as things can be for an often infuriating, always mercurial wide receiver.

Burress returned to the Giants on Monday, for the first time since he was suspended by the team for one game after missing meetings without notifying the team on Sept. 22. Speaking to the news media with the defiance of a student who spends far too much time in the principal's office, Burress explained that he had no regrets because he had to attend to family issues.

"I don't understand why it is so hard for everybody to understand that," Burress said in a conference call. "I haven't lost any sleep. I am in great spirits. I enjoyed my week off. My team went out and played great yesterday without me. It was good to see the guys go out there and play well."

But while Burress sounded comfortable answering questions about his absence for 17 minutes, Coach Tom Coughlin quickly turned testy when discussing the matter. He wanted to know why no one was asking about the Giants' 44-6 victory against the Seattle Seahawks, their largest margin of victory since 1972.

"This is an issue that we have talked about for two weeks, or we haven't talked about for two weeks," Coughlin said of Burress. "He is back. He was told to be back this morning, that he would report for work on the 6th. He did. He exercised with his teammates; he ran and he did the things that he was supposed to do."

In addition to sitting out one game, Burress was originally fined two weeks' salary. But after a partly successful appeal, that penalty was halved, saving him roughly $117,500.

When the suspension was announced, Burress's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, told reporters that Burress felt remorseful about his behavior and was deeply apologetic for not alerting the Giants. On Monday, Burress sounded unrepentant.

"If I had to make this decision again I would do the same," he said. "I would probably put in a phone call, deal with it that way. But as far as me feeling sorry for myself or getting down on myself, I don't worry about that.

"I didn't feel any reason to explain to them what happened or why I missed because I don't feel it's really anybody's business," he added, referring to the Giants."