BUZZ BUILDING THAT BURRESS WILL BE BUSTED
Posted by Mike Florio on November 29, 2008, 7:06 p.m. EST
We’ve been checking in with a wide variety of media sources regarding the accidental self-shooting of Giants receiver Plaxico Burress, and there’s a buzz building that Burress will be busted for illegally carrying a concealed weapon.
Such an outcome would mean that the authorities believe Burress didn’t have the appropriate paperwork in place to carry the weapon in New York City.
As we previously explained, a conviction on such charges will result in a mandatory minimum sentence of 3.5 years in jail, without exception. (Supposedly.)
Meanwhile, we skimmed all 288 pages of Plaxico’s book, Giant: The Road To The Super Bowl, and we found a few passages that shed light on whether Burress would be toting a handgun in a public place without a permit.
Burress grew up in Virginia Beach, where as he writes at page 20 ”it was all drugs and crime.” He says that “there were shootings and killings all the time,” and that gunfire “so random at night you just became immune to it.”
On the next page, Burress describes a shooting he witnessed when he was 12 or 13. “He stands up, pulls out his gun, and boom, boom, boom, he shoots out the back of the dude’s window. I was like, Damn.”
On page 22, Burress writes that the drug dealers “took care of [him]” because of his athletic abilities, and one of them “would give me a little weed to sell.” He writes of the drug dealers: “They were all cool about it. They all sold weed and crack. They all had pistols and guns, but I was the one, I was the oddball.”
At page 69, Burress says that he quit hanging out with his boyhood friends several years ago. “I had to stop doing stuff with them. They did stuff I’m not happy about. I’ve seen them pull guns and shoot at people.”
Perhaps the most intriguing relevation comes in Chapter 7, when
Burress explains that the woman he married is a licensed lawyer. Because even though Burress might have been inclined based on his upbringing to think that it was normal to have a gun without giving any thought to whether it was legal to carry the thing around, the fact that his wife is a lawyer should have at some point resulted in him becoming aware that a guy just can’t leave the house with a loaded weapon in his pants without a permit.
Then again, if Burress doesn’t listen to his head coach, chances are he doesn’t listen to his wife, either.
As the investigation proceeds, one key figure could be teammate Antonio Pierce. Per Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News, Pierce was partying with Burress when the incident occurred.
Pierce is currently in Washington with the rest of the team. When he comes back to New York, it’s likely that the police will want a word with him.
piece of ####
WU-TANG!
. I think a couple of jokes at Plaxico's expense are not going to hurt.
WU-TANG!
Well, SECOND thing. The first thing was "Wow...Plax is a dumb###."
I really hope Pierce doesn't go down for this as well.
