Monthly Archives: November 2008
Tiki Barber told viewers on Football Night in America that Giants receiver Steve Smith was robbed at gunpoint outside of his home last week.
Could Plaxico have felt threatened? It isn’t an excuse for putting himself in the position he’s now found himself in, but it does lead one to wonder what the hell is going on with Giants and guns.
Off the field it gets worse, on the field they couldn’t look any better. Tomorrow I will write about the actual game, but until then, here is some more news about Plaxico Burress from Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk.
Florida relays a story from Tiki Barber of NBC that Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw was the third member of the team who was present at the Latin Quarter night club in Manhattan when Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg. It was earlier speculated that Derrick Ward was the third member of the team present on that evening.
Barber said that Bradshaw was not involved in the incident. Bradshaw may be on probation for the incident that resulted in an unexpected one-month prison term during the offseason and may have been compelled to answer any questions the police may have had for him about the incident.
Barber repeated the information posted earlier that it not yet being clear if the hospital reported the incident in a timely fashion. New York law requires medical facilities to report such matters promptly.
Peter King mentioned that Burress could lose as much as $23 million in future payments under his contract with the Giants. Twenty-three of the $27 million he got in his contract was all based on the future. There’s $1 million guaranteed money in signing bonus that’s due on December 10. King claims Burress has seen his last days as a Giant.
Multiple sources are contradicting an earlier report by Pro Football Talk that running back Derrick Ward was with Plaxico Burress when Burress accidentally shot himself.
However there apparently was a third member of the team, along with Burress and Antonio Pierce at the Latin Quarter at the night club in New York City at the time of the shooting.
It is not yet clear if the hospital where Burress sought treatment complied with their legal obligation to notify the police of Plaxico’s gunshot wounds. The 12 hours that Burress spent at the hospital should have given authorities a chance to interview Burress before he had time to get a lawyer involved.
The Giants defeated the Redskins by a score of 23-7 in rainy Washington today. The win put the Giants at 11-1, their first 11-1 start in franchise history. The win also lets the Giants retain their three game lead in the division over the 8-4 Cowboys.
Eli Manning had it going today, as he threw for a season high 305 yards on 21/34 passing. His lone TD was a 40 yard longball to Amani Toomer to give the Giants a 7-0 lead. Speaking of Toomer, he came up huge without the services of Plax Burress, reeling in five balls for 85 yards.
Brandon Jacobs made his return after a one game absence, and ran for 71 yards on 21 carries. Jacobs really turned it on in the second half, after rushing for only 14 yards in the first half. Change of pace back Derrick Ward also had a very nice game, rushing for 30 yards, and catching five balls for 75 yards. Domenik Hixon had another good week, catching five balls for 71 yards. All five of Hixon’s catches went for first downs.
The defense was back to it’s suffocating ways, sacking QB Jason Campbell four times. Two of those were credited to half man half beast Justin Tuck, giving him 11.5 sacks on the year. Safety Michael Johnson lead the team with seven tackles and two assists. Aaron Ross made up for his off week, intercepting a Campbell pass on the two yard line.
The Giants host the 6-5-1 Eagles next week in Giants Stadium. Gametime is slated for 1:00 on FOX.
The lawyer for Plaxico Burress, Benjamin Brafman, told the AP that Burress will plead not guilty to charges of criminal possession of a weapon.
Brafman said in a statement “I would hope that fans of the New York Giants will give Plaxico the benefit of the doubt and the presumption of innocence — something we’re all supposed to be given in this country.”
NFL Security traveled to D.C. to meet with linebacker Antonio Pierce and other players, possibly to find out if Burress ever had a gun at a team facility or while traveling on team business. If he did that would be a separate violation of the NFL’s gun policy.
Keep up with the latest news on the Giants, including in-game updates, breaking news regarding the Plaxico Burress shooting, and everything involving Big Blue.
Head over to our Giants Football Blog Twitter and start following everything you need to know.
The Vitals:
Game: New York Giants (10-1) @ Washington Redskins (7-4)
TV: FOX (Channel 5 in New York), Kenny Albert calls play by play, Daryl Johnson handles the color commentary.
Radio: WFAN (660AM). Russ Salzberg and Roman Oben handle pre and post game. Bob Papa calls the play by play with Carl Banks covering color commentary.
Time: 1:00 PM EST
Game Notes:
- Domenik Hixon will get the start today in place of the injured (and potentially in legal hot water) Plaxico Burress. Hixon had 269 total yards last week. 180 on kickoff returns, 57 receiving, 21 on punt returns, and an 11 yard rush.
- Brandon Jacobs is expected to play but could be a gametime decision as he was ruled inactive at the last moment last week. In his place Derrick Ward started and 69 yards on 20 carries and caught four passes for 30 yards.
- Eli Manning had one of this best games of the season last week, completing 26 of 33, a career best 79% completion rate. He threw for 240 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
- The Giants are 5-5-1 against the Redskins at Fed Ex field. Tom Coughlin has a 7-5 coaching record against the Redskins.
- The teams last met on September 4th, when the Giants beat the Redskins, 16-7.
- The Giants lead the league in rushing yards per game, with 164.9. The Giants have run for 1,814 yards in 2008. Brandon Jacobs leads the way with 879 yards. Derrick Ward has 600 yards and Ahmad Bradshaw has 310.
- It will be an emotional day as the Redskins induct the late Sean Taylor into their hall of fame. Taylor was murdered in his home a year ago this week.
Inactives
GIANTS
K Lawrence Tynes
WR Plaxico Burress
CB Sam Madison
RB Ahmad Bradshaw
LB Jonathan Goff
T Adam Koets
DE Jerome McDougle
DT Fred Robbins
REDSKINS
QB Colt Brennan
LB Marcus Washington
DT Kedric Golston
G Jason Fabini
G Chad Rinehart
DE Erasmus James
TE Fred Davis
DE Rob Jackson
Quote of the Week:
“We have changed a couple things just because they have too. Our play calling and the way we approach this football game is just based on what we saw out of them the last couple of weeks. They are an improved bunch from what we faced in week one so we are going to try to change things up and try to catch them off-guard with some things. I am sure they have some tricks up their sleeve, too, so it is another chess match.” – DE Justin Tuck on the defensive changes from their Week 1 matchup against the Redskins
Chat:
As always, to chat with your fellow Big Blue fans, head on over to the Giants Tailgate.
Jay Glazer on Fox Sports reports that Plaxico Burress has told the NYPD he will turn himself in tomorrow. Antonio Pierce was the one who took Burress to the hospital and could potentially find himself with obstruction of justice charges. However Glazer was told by police that Pierce is cooperating and is leading them to the firearm.
Plaxico Burress’ lawyer, Ben Brafman, helped Sean “P Diddy” Combs get a “not guilty” verdict on illegal weapons and bribery charges stemming from a 1999 shooting inside a Manhattan nightclub.
The Giants could impose multiple fines and hold back paying parts of his contract because of the incident.
Michael Strahan on the Fox pre game show talked about how the police come to training camp and tell players about the consequences of having a gun and ask them to turn over any firearms they may have in camp. He said that they should not have been out at a nightclub before a game, especially with a gun.
“He’s making us look stupid” is what Strahan’s former teammates told him.
“They are not going to just abandon that guy, they want Plaxico to be a better person and a better man. They are not going to quit on him.” said Strahan.
There is a mandatory three and a half year prison sentance for carrying a unlicensed firearm in New York City.
Murray Weiss and Larry Celona of the New York Post reported new details surrounding the accidental self-inflicted shooting of Plaxico Burress.
Plaxico shot himself in his right thigh just after midnight near the VIP entrance to the LQ nightclub on Lexington Avenue after being confronted by security guards looking for weapons, sources said. Burress arrived at the club with linebacker Antonio Pierce.
He admitted to the guards that he was carrying a weapon and allegedly moved over to a secluded area and began trying to unload the bullets from the gun and bobbled it. A shot went off accidentally, entering through his leg but not hitting his thigh bone.
Security personnel wanted to call an ambulance, but Burress stopped them. He was driven to Cornell Medical Center by a friend, who left immediately after dropping him off around 2 a.m. He was treated and released at 2 p.m. today.
He has an expired license to carry a gun in Florida, which would not have allowed him to have a gun in New York.
The NYPD and local police came to Burress’ home in Totowa, NJ, home at around 4:30 p.m. today wanting to discuss to shooting with him. His wife Tiffany refused to let the police enter at first and then told the officers she needed to get dressed and asked them to wait. Officers waited more than 30 minutes and left.
Police sources said a team representative came up from Washington to take detectives to the weapon, which is believed to be in New Jersey.
Burress could potentially have charges placed on him for carrying an unlicensed loaded gun. Criminal possession of a loaded weapon is a felony in New York.
According to the Daily News and the NY post, Antonio Pierce was with Plaxico Burress at the time of the accidental shooting. Apparently before heading into club LQ (Latin Quarter) located in the basement of the Radison Hotel, Plaxico decided to get rid of the bullets in his fire arm.
My guess would be the best way to do this is to open the chamber and take the bullets out, Plaxico chose the option of shooting them off? That can’t be right.
Apparently Plaxico does have a permit for the gun but there are two problems with said permit. One, it expired and two, it’s a permit for Florida not New York, which has some of the most stringent gun laws in the U.S. Yikes. This most certainly is not an issue that will go away quickly, and if police are involved, Roger Goodell most certainly will be too.
Pierce will certainly be peppered with questions after tomorrows game, win or lose. I suspect that Pierce will take the same path Kareem McKenzie did after his DUI and not comment on the situation. Come to think of it, if it’s an official police matter I am not sure he can comment anyhow. Plaxico has found a way to become a distraction once again, fortunately as Justin Tuck said earlier this year, the Giants thrive off of distractions.
Plaxico Burress is Cheddar Bob from 8 mile.
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