No apologies.

There hasn't been the need so far, because other than a few headaches, a few unwanted questions, and a few hundred thousand dollars of his own money, Plaxico Burress' antics haven't really cost the New York Giants anything yet. Maybe that's why the receiver shrugs off his growing list of controversies, including the one this weekend in which he was benched for most of the first half.

"The only thing I can do is treat it like a grain of sand and brush it off," he said after the game.

It was a game that the Giants won. Just as they did a week earlier against the 49ers when Burress drew two flags on successive plays — one for questionable offensive pass interference and the other for questioning the offensive pass interference — and shared his thoughts on authority with Tom Coughlin as he walked off the field. And when the Giants suspended him for the Seahawks game at the beginning of the month — a game he didn't even watch in full — they routed their way to a 44-6 victory.

The best thing about these situations is that the Giants have been able to win despite them. But that might also be the worst thing. Had they somehow figured in the Giants losing to Seattle or losing to the Steelers, then clearly something severe would need to occur.

But the other 52 Giants are acting as inadvertent enablers for Burress' behavior by winning. The Burress situations right now are sideshows. When they start costing the Giants victories, they'll be moved to center stage.

And that's when somebody will owe somebody an apology.

Burress wasn't the only wide receiver not playing on Sunday. The Steelers' Santonio Holmes was deactivated for the game after he was hit with a marijuana charge earlier in the week.

What happened? The Steelers threw four interceptions and lost to the Giants. Would Holmes have helped his team win that game? Even if he's never practiced long-snapping in his life, the answer is almost certainly yes. That's why on Monday night, back on the team's active roster, Holmes addressed the team in a meeting and apologized.

"We all appreciated that," linebacker and defensive captain James Farrior told reporters of the apology. "That meant a lot to us, and we know he really cares about this team."

What did the Giants captain say after the game in which Burress was benched and, looking back, would have been an appetizing weapon or at least a distraction to someone other than his own team had he been lined up wide on those third- and fourth-and-goal runs that came up short?

"It happens," Eli Manning said, a less poetic and less quotable version of Burress' brush-off-the-sand remark but one that carries the same implication. "We want Plaxico out there and he's going to make plays for us but we aren't going to make a big deal about it. No one talked about it and we're just going to go about our business."

Putting Burress next to Holmes may not be a direct comparison. Burress, so far as we know, has done nothing morally or legally wrong to warrant the wrath of the NFL or the Giants. He's broken team rules, not society's rule. But it's just a matter of time before Burress is benched or suspended and it disrupts that business Manning said they are going about and costs the Giants something more precious than their patience.

It will eventually cost them a victory.

Burress has already said he doesn't care what his teammates think of him. He's made it clear he doesn't care about attending meetings or treatments for injuries. He may not even care that much about playing in the games, evidenced by his casual poses on the sideline this Sunday with his visor askew or his remarks that his two-week suspension afforded him an opportunity to "get away for a little while and chill out and relax."

But Burress probably cares about winning. That's the only reason he would have played through those nagging injuries last year. And the affinity for wins is one of the few things he shares with the rest of the Giants.

It's not quite a sorry state of affairs for the team right now. But it needs to be resolved before it becomes an "I'm sorry" situation.