A former Giants teammate who spoke with Plaxico Burress hours before he was sentenced to two years in prison on gun charges Tuesday said that Burress told him it was "just beginning to dawn on me I am going in.''As has often been the case, Burress got it late. Way too late. Executives from the Steelers (where Burress played from 2000-2004) and Giants (2005-2008) painted a similar picture of their time with Burress.
Even so, the league office and each NFL team took notice of Burress clinging to his son before walking that lonely plank into confinement -- they did not have to know him well to feel compassion and concern. Or to use this as one more tool to educate their players on guns and football, how the mix is not natural. Only with education and responsibility can both co-exist. That is the NFL's continued mantra.
They know the next NFL gun case will surface.
More Coverage: Burress Heckled by Rikers Inmates
They continue to search for ways to decrease the number of incidents.
"I don't think there is a player development leader in this league who isn't finding a way to use this sad case with Plaxico to illustrate to their players what to avoid,'' an NFL team executive said, requesting anonymity. "You go from being on top of the world in your profession to paying such a steep price. We know the laws of this land allow you to have guns. We are telling our players they must know every piece of law that goes with having that gun. You have a question, we will get you the answer. We'd rather they not have them.''
The executive was asked if he owned a gun.
"Yes, I do,'' he answered.
So you take an NFL athlete hanging around people who are more apt to come after him, and the player's thinking is, "Why wouldn't I have a gun?'' Those not hanging with the wrong crowd know they, too, can readily become targets. We have seen enough NFL players robbed or shot at gunpoint to know that the innocent can become prey. Two recent incidents in Buffalo -- a player's lawn vandalized, another's home robbed of $400,000 in jewelry -- emphasized the point.
This convinces many NFL players that packing their own heat is the answer.
As one NFL owner told me: "There's not much difference in that than the local urban grocer who feels a threat, the need. But his story goes on the backpage. Ours goes front and center.''
It goes way beyond that when prevention and humility are overwhelmed by pride.
That speaks to the Burress example.
The Steelers say he was quiet, respectful but guarded with his trust. A Steelers executive said that Burress tried to portray an image that was not what he was really about -- which was, in reality, an introverted person who had his crew, family members and friends from his upbringing, among the few he kept close and let in.
When the Giants signed him in 2005, they hoped bringing him into their environment would encourage him to jump on-board. But throughout his tenure he was late to meetings and missed others, skipped treatments and weight room sessions and a variety of mandatory functions that resulted in more than $1 million in fines and game suspensions.
Rather than conform, Burress became resentful. He had a severe problem with alcohol, the Giants say, and coupled with his constant attempt to deal with severe childhood family issues, it colored his time with them. The Giants said their efforts in counseling and support could not change it. During his darkest hours, when the gun charges surfaced last fall, Burress followed that up with a lack of communication with his team. And he sued them for his total signing bonus, rather than admit his mistakes and get the Giants on his side to help fight his huge gun-charge battle.
One of his former teammates said: "He tore away from the Giants at a time of trouble. That was not a smart move. He wasn't returning calls from the team when they were reaching out to him. And then he fought to get all of his money when he could have been humble, admitted he was wrong and taken less. It was a big mistake. You have to humble yourself in that situation. You have to fault the team also, because they let him get away with too much for too long, and it helped feed the monster. Players loved the player. There were one or two guys in the locker room that he didn't speak to that didn't like him. But most guys liked Plax.''Burress proved a mismatch with his enormous size on the field, his tremendous eye-hand coordination, speed and rare skills. He was a nexus of the Giants Super Bowl XLII championship journey. His major undoing involved a gun charge from a late Friday in November in a nightclub where he accidentally shot himself in the thigh. Numbing on so many levels, but a story that resonates across the league as the current model held up to hammer home the dangers of guns and NFL players.
Burress has landed in a harsh place where, maybe for the first time in his life, he will adhere to all the rules. He will be on time. He will be held accountable.
"Sometimes,'' said an NFL executive, "a change of scenery helps everyone grow.''
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-25-2009 @ 2:36AM
tyrekyoung said...
When Malik Sealy tragically died from injuries he sustained from a car crash due to speeding I thought that perhaps people would learn, unfortunately Derrick Thomas was speeding in bad weather; weaving in and out of traffic; ended up in a massive accident that resulted in his death. And the sad thing is they are not the first and wont be the last. In a few short months and years everyone will forget about the Plaxico fiasco, until the next athlete comes along and destroes his life
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9-25-2009 @ 7:38AM
ybugster said...
This is just another example where these so-called super stars think they are above the law!!!Why do these idiots think there is a different set of Laws of the land for them than any other citizen in this country? The law doesn't say they can't have a gun, they just can't carry a gun, especially if they don't know how to use a gun i.e.. Shooting yourself in the leg probably qaulifies you as NOT knowing how to use a gun, that is unless your own leg is trying to rob you... Obviously these guys must be taking too many hits to the head because thier thinking is way too distorted. I'm glad I had a daughter instead of a son looking up to these jackasses as role models. But that may be the problem, these guys looked at the wrong people as their role models instead of who they should have been looking up to, thier parents. That's what is wrong with our society today! Society took away a parents responsibility to disapline their own children. The person who came up with "timeout" needs taken behind the woodshed for an attitude ajustment. I grew up in the era where Dad tanned your hide for poor judgement, I'd never had dreamed of pulling some of the crap kids pull now because I had to answer to Dad. "Timeout" does not now or will ever work when it comes to disaplining children. Wake up America and turn around our youth's thug mentallity why there is still time. Give the right of disapline back to the parents!!!!!!!!!!
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9-25-2009 @ 8:00AM
thundercreek77 said...
I did 8 years in NY docs,plax should or will realise just how lucky he is.He has a date to go home a lot of guys that I was with will never go home.Every 2 years they go to the parole board and get hit with 2 more years.This may sound harsh but Plax needs to be a man and accept what he has done,and do the time or as we say it will do him.
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9-25-2009 @ 10:45AM
waterlillies10 said...
this is a sad time for this man. he made a mistake ,i do not believe he deserved prison, he didn't have any kind of record, why get a halfway house or some kind of public service
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9-25-2009 @ 11:33AM
ed344mu said...
I don't think prison is the answer either. A halfway house, extended probation, community service would all have been a more suitable punishment. It's unfortunate that Burress did not know how to properly handle firearms because that would have prevented the discharging of his weapon. He might still have been arrested because he lacked the proper permits, but his arming himself may not have ever been detected.
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9-25-2009 @ 3:48PM
knightscarp said...
Just remenber all yo NFL rookies---as soon as you sign that first big contract you then must buy a bunch of guns, go clubbing every chance you get till early in the morning, get lots of bling,and a new expensive set of wheels that you can drive through the hood. All these things make you really cool and the chicks dig it. You'll have more virgins than a Muslium who just blew himself up. Oh yes also surround yourself with all your old homies from the hood, they will keep you safe.
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9-25-2009 @ 8:28PM
jzz3skys said...
"On the seventh day God created IMAGINATION, and he gave this thing dominion over all else He had created. The person with this is able to stand in his own place and at the same time project himself into another person's place, see from the eyes of that person, and understand the world from that person's point of view. This gift is called "compassion," and it is a very, very rare thing." -- James Alan McPherson
If we consider ourselves an enlightened society and a compassionate people, then we should hope that something good will come out of this sad, lonely tale.
The philosophy of deterrence is based the idea that "punishment should discourage a criminal from future criminal acts by instilling an understanding of the consequences." (source: the Oracle at Wiki) This is called Specific Deterrence and it's something we can hope for.
The alternative to this kind of deterrence is called Retribution (or Retributivism), which holds that "punishment is a necessary consequence of a crime and should be calculated based on the gravity of the wrong done."
The NYC law under which Burress was convicted is based on deterrence, but it's another kind of deterrence called Indirect Deterrence which is not focused on the individual or behavioral change. It's based on the idea of making an example of the lawbreaker, who "receives punishment in public view in order to deter other individuals from deviance in the future." I don't see much difference between the philosophy of indirect deterrence and plain old retribution, especially in the Burress case where there were no victims, the gun was purchased legally, he had no prior convictions and he didn't intend to use it criminally.
Indirect deterrence is the basis for prosecuting some of the big retired stars in the Balco scandal. The proof that it doesn't work is the fact that it hasn't deterred a few of the current stars from using performance-enhancing drugs.
I hope others learn from the Burress example, however, people who live or circulate in high crime areas often carry guns for self-protection. I don't condone it.
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