The Plax of His Tears: E:60‘s Surprisingly Revealing Interview With Plaxico Burress

In one humanizing moment, Burress held his multi-million dollar fingers multi-millimeters apart to denote the proximity of the bullet to his vital femoral artery; in another, he teared up when discussing his pregnant wife, who is due with a baby girl in November. Even as a Giants fan who had been privy to many a Plaxico interview over the years, I was surprised by how well he performed. So too was a more objective friend of mine, a diehard Patriots fan, who texted me after the E:60 segment thusly: “Plax absolutely murdered that ESPN interview – he almost had ME in tears. Dude got screwed…”

On the surface, dude did get screwed. In comparison to the recent jail time assigned to Stallworth and Vick — the former served 24 days of a 30 day sentence for a drunk driving accident that left a 59-year old man dead, and the latter 18 months in prison for his involvement in a dogfighting operation that included the grisly torture and slaying of animals — Burress’ sentencing of two years (with a probable effective time of 20 months) raised eyebrows. But in New York, unlicensed gun possession carries with it a no-exceptions minimum of 3 1/2 years in prison (Burress’ Glock was registered only in Florida), and no less an authority than Mayor Mike Bloomberg himself had vowed to prosecute Burress “to the fullest extent of the law”.

Schaap shrewdly brought up Bloomberg’s press conference to Burress, and the question led to one of the interviews’s most interesting moments. Burress described how weeks of negotiations for a $10,000 bail crumbled in less than three minutes once the Mayor held his hard-line press conference. Imitating the subtle tics on the bailiff’s face as the updated bail — $250,000 — was announced, Burress explained that he knew at that moment that he would be going to jail. The whole exchange made for compelling TV viewing.

Interestingly, Bloomberg may not be the only politician to have an impact on Burress’ fate. A few voices in the blogosphere, including CBSSports.com ‘s Mike Freeman and The Sporting News’ Michael Tunison, have begun to agitate for a pardon from potentially lame-ducked Governor David Paterson. While that would certainly make for a couple of zany New York Post covers, I’d assume the odds are slim. But Pro Football Talk commenter “PirateFreedom” knows just what would happen next: “Ideally he gets pardoned, comes back to play for whoever NY fans hate the most and makes the game-winning catch that ruins the Giants season.”

Hate the most? Well, that would be the Philadelphia Eagles, obviously. And wouldn’t it be perfect if the guy throwing the pass was none other than Michael Vick?

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.