Posted by ESPN.com's Matt Mosley

New York Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora spoke to reporters Tuesday for the first time since he skipped out on practice Monday without offering the club an explanation. Before Umenyiora spoke today, coach Tom Coughlin indicated that he was putting the situation behind him. He also said the any potential punishment for Umenyiora would stay between them.

"Absolutely, it was a very, very bad moral decision on my part and an even worse financial decision on my part," Umenyiora, obviously indicating that he'd been fined by the team. "Everything is cool now. I talked to who I needed to talk to, I apologized to who I needed to apologize to, and it was just so stupid and trivial for me to do that. Sometimes when you get emotional things happen like that, but everything is okay though."

Umenyiora said he surprised himself by what he did after his dispute with new defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan:

"When I came back and actually thought about what was going to happen and the repercussions for doing something like that, that’s when I was surprised. That’s definitely not in my character to behave that way. I don’t behave that way and I don’t plan on behaving that way again.