Burress Shoots Himself- Career in Critical?

By now most people know that New York Giants star wide receiver Plaxico Burress shot himself with a gun he was carrying in a New York nightclub in the wee hours of last Saturday morning. The media frenzy that followed as entirely predictable. Burress has had trouble follow throughout his pro career, but nothing quite like this. On Monday, he was arraigned on a pair of felony weapons charges that could land him in prison for a mandatory minimum of 3 1/2 years. That would be on each count.

The reaction of the sporting press was outrage, the kind of outrage reserved for athletes they consider pampered who do something inarguably stupid. Sports journalists all too often ignore the presumption of innocence that is the foundation of our country's legal system. In the case of Plaxico Burress, no less a personage than the Mayor of New York, Mike Bloomberg, weighed in. He says Burress should be prosecuted "to the fullest extent of the law". For Bloomberg, that means three and a half years in prison. After all, he was the one who successfully lobbied the state to increase the punishment for illegal weapons possession from a year.

You can argue all day whether Burress deserves jail time or counseling, but a few things need to be established here. Athletes and celebrities often walk around armed, and don't get caught. That's because they fear being robbed, as several have been leaving clubs or even in front of their own homes. Why Burress didn't simply hire a legally armed bodyguard is anybody's guess. It's a delicious irony that Plaxico Burress, a man who makes a really good living catching a football, couldn't manage to hang on to a gun in his own pants.

The central question here, whether you're outraged by what he did or just think he's an idiot (or both) is whether he's offered a plea bargain or if he actually goes to trial. in the case of the latter, a mandatory minimum sentence wouldn't likely be imposed. Perhaps proper punishment for Plaxico Burress is a trip out of town. The New York Giants won this past weekend without him. For all his skills, he is in fact expendable. Voiding his contract for misconduct would cost him the better part of $35 million dollars.

Then let Plaxico Burress go out and make a living like the rest of us.