By JUSTIN TERRANOVA
Giants play-by-play man Bob Papa shed some light on Plaxico Burress’ legal situation on his Sirius radio show today, and it appears Burress thinks he is above the law.
“This is what I’ve been told and what I’ve heard,” Papa said on the air. “They worked out something where they had it down to about a three-month jail term with actually only two months served and about 1,500 hours of community service. And I think his lawyers felt that they had a pretty good deal. He doesn’t want to go to jail at all. He shot down the deal.”
So if this is true — and I cannot think of one, single reason Papa would make this up or bring it up without direct knowledge — then Burress, who was cut by the Giants last month, would already be out of prison.
“He does not want to go to jail at all,” Papa said on the air. “So now coming up in another couple of weeks we’re gonna find out what’s gonna happen. But my guess is that the city of New York is not gonna back off any kind of jail time.”
Burress’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus, says the reciever has received interest from three NFL teams.
The Jets have admitted an interest, and the Buccaneers were widely reported to be another team involved in the Plaxico Watch.
Tampa Bay’s new head coach, Raheem Morris, confirmed that today.
“Plaxico has got to deal with his issue with the league,” Morris told the St. Petersburg Times.
“We’ll see how that plays out. We’ll see how that works out with us and their timing and everything of that nature. But he’s a great player. What do you want me to tell you? You don’t want to defend Plaxico. But if he’s cleared through his legal issues and the NFL grants him back, I don’t want to be the guy to pass judgment.”
Burress could face 3 1/2 years in prison for possession of an unlicensed handgun after he accidentally shot himself in the leg on Nov. 29 at a Manhattan nightclub.
“Evidently, he’s gonna have to go to Riker’s Island,” Papa said. “He’s deathly afraid of going. … If he would have just taken the deal when it originally was offered it would all be over with by now. But supposedly the community service hours and the jail time are not appealing to him. He does not understand that he is not in any kind of position of leverage. He has no leverage. He — not his representatives — he thinks he has leverage.”
Pro Football Talk, which posted Papa’s quotes, speculated that Burress thinks he can get off because his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, got Sean “Puffy” Combs off on similar charges. But …
“There are two key differences between the two cases,” PFT’s Mike Florio writes.
“For Combs, the unlicensed and loaded weapon that he allegedly had in his possession didn’t fire. More importantly, Brafman destroyed on cross examination the witnesses who claimed that Combs pointed a gun at them.
“For Burress, Exhibit A is the scar from where the bullet entered his leg. Exhibit B is the scar from where it exited. Add a dash of testimony from folks like former teammate Antonio Pierce who’ll confirm that the scars were obtained when a gun in Plax’s possession went off inside a Manhattan night club, and no amount of legal hocus pocus or mumbo jumbo … will keep a reasonable jury from concluding that Burress is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
