Yo, Meathead!

So I might have used this column to write about the Super Bowl. Yeah, sure, it was a fantastic game. Sure, the Cardinals really have nothing to be ashamed about, taking the Steelers down to the wire after 61 years of not even sniffing a championship. Sure, Ben Roethlisberger’s final drive can be compared to Eli Manning’s in last year’s game against the Patriots. (In my opinion, Manning’s drive was the greater, against tougher odds, in a tougher situation, against a much tougher defense.)

But how could I write about anything today except for A-Rod?

Of course I can’t stand the guy, especially since he plays for the Yankees. But there’s even more to dislike about Alex Rodriguez. He’s obsessed with his image—to the point that in his new book, Joe Torre implies that A-Rod is more concerned with how he might look in a clutch situation than with helping his team win. He’s a major distraction to his team and baseball in general. He went out in public with strippers while he was still married. He’s an egomaniac but still acts like an insecure 10-year-old. (Remember how he pined for Derek Jeter’s friendship and approval for years until he was finally able to act like a man and move on? If he hadn’t trashed Jeter in the media, maybe it never would’ve been an issue.) Need I go on?

Now add in steroids to this equation, and A-Rod comes off as even more of a jerk than before, which is saying something. In his interview yesterday with ESPN’s Peter Gammons, in which he admitted his steroid use, Gammons threw softball after softball, letting A-Rod off the hook in a way that Katie Couric never did with Sarah Palin! Now we’re supposed to like A-Rod again because he admitted his mistake—even though he never really answered the tough questions, even though he wants us to believe that he didn’t know what he was taking, that he couldn’t admit to himself that he was doing something wrong, that his only years of indiscretion were 2001 to 2003. What a joke!

Anyone who knows me knows I have no love for the Yankees, but I certainly have respect for Jeter, Jorge Posada, and whoever plays hard and comports themselves with dignity inside the three-ring circus that is the Yankees organization. Now, once again, A-Rod has thrown spring training into an uproar. Does anyone really think Jeter relishes the idea of answering stupid question after stupid question about his teammate with the bloated ego and bloated contract? And another funny thing—that period when A-Rod was comparing himself to Jeter and saying that Jeter’s stats didn’t hold a candle to his, that Jeter wasn’t the guy in the lineup that was feared by the opposition? Guess what? Those were A-Rod’s ’roid years! Ya think Derek Jeter has even more of a reason to be peeved about it now, years after he has let it go?

Even though I dislike A-Rod, my hatred runs much deeper for Barry Bonds. I had high hopes of watching A-Rod approach, and then break, Bonds’s all-time home-run record, thinking that, yes, A-Rod’s an ass, but at least he’s clean, so take that, Barry! Now, even that dream has been ruined. Now I cringe at the prospect of watching A-Rod hit his home runs, passing Bonds while the Yankee fans adore him and the rest of the baseball world jeers. I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area while Bonds pursued the record, and the fan adulation, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of steroid use, made me gag. I know what the frenzy will be like among Yankee fans—it will just give me reason to hate the Yankees even more, if that’s possible.

As for the home-run record—it will probably need an A-Sterisk.

Everyone's Tokin' 'Bout Mike Phelps!

Michael Phelps made a mistake by letting himself be photographed taking a hit of pot from a bong. Just look at the photo. He’s using it all wrong. For one, he doesn’t have the proper amount of water in there. Consequently, the smoke he inhaled was probably very harsh. A little crushed ice would have also been a smart move. In addition, it appears as though he’s not using the carburetor properly.
Poor Michael Phelps. Who knew his best event was the 420 Freestyle?
Sure, I jest. I can’t help it. But, I think this incident illustrates two things: 1.) Michael Phelps used really poor judgment and 2.) Marijuana should have been legalized a long time ago.
I have been saying it for 20 years now and my opinion has never changed. Pot is a weed that grows naturally in the soil. It is so much less harmful than the number one killer among teens and adults, which is cigarettes, followed closely by alcohol. You never hear about people dying in pot-related accidents. You never see folks vomiting in the gutter after smoking one too many joints. I’ve never heard anyone say, “Wow, I am so hungover. I smoked too much weed last night.”
I know you’ve all heard the arguments, so I won’t go into them here. I’m not defending Phelps so much as I’m saying that the fact that marijuana is still illegal after all these years is ridiculous—a mixture of fear, arrogance and ignorance. Economically, nothing makes more sense than to make it legal. You want an economic stimulus in this country? Legalize pot!
This appeared on the Huffington Post recently, written by John V. Santore:
Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps was recently photographed using a marijuana bong at the home of a friend. The photographic evidence made a denial impossible, which led to release of the following statement today:
"I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment. I'm 23 years old and despite the successes I've had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again."
Not too long ago, Chris Matthews reviewed transitioning public attitudes towards marijuana by reviewing the statements of past presidential candidates about their own drug use, from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama:
And during the last campaign, Stephen Colbert made light of the supposed "hope bong" then-candidate Obama was making available to the public:
All of this would be little more than an interesting and amusing cultural trend were it not for realities such as this:
A study released [in April, 2008] reported that between 1998 and 2007 [in New York City], the police arrested 374,900 people whose most serious crime was the lowest-level misdemeanor marijuana offense.
That is more than eight times the number of arrests on those same charges between 1988 and 1997, when 45,300 people were picked up for having a small amount of pot...
...Nearly everyone involved in this wave of marijuana arrests is male: 90 percent were men, although national studies show that men and women use pot in roughly equal rates. And 83 percent of those charged in these cases were black or Latino, according to the study. Blacks accounted for 52 percent of the arrests, twice their share of the city's population. Whites, who are about 35 percent of the population, were only 15 percent of those charged -- even though federal surveys show that whites are more likely than blacks or Latinos to use pot.
Among the pretty large population of white people who have used pot and not been arrested for it is Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Asked during the 2001 campaign by New York magazine if he had ever smoked it, Mr. Bloomberg replied: "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." After he was elected and his remarks were used in advertisements by marijuana legalization advocates, Mr. Bloomberg said his administration would vigorously enforce the laws.
While marijuana laws have changed over time, and while past administrations have attempted to show that the situation isn't as dire as it appears to be, drug policy in the United States is immensely hypocritical and destructive. Today, public figures justify past drug use as "youthful indiscretions" and the matter is dropped. But huge numbers of ordinary Americans are introduced to the jail system because of minor drug offenses, and as the records show, the overwhelmingly disproportionate nature of drug arrests creates a justified perception of injustice and both economic and racial bias.
Will Michael Phelps have to go to court for his actions? No. (Nor should he have to.) Will any law enforcement jurisdiction in America conduct a systematic raid of a college dorm at a prominent university with the goal of arresting everyone in possession of marijuana? Of course not. If such an action was taken on a broad scale, the arrests would likely be in the thousands. At the same time, will poor Americans, overwhelmingly minority in ethnicity, continue to be arrested by local police for the possession of small amounts of pot? Absolutely.
Before he was president, Obama indicated that he was well aware that marijuana laws needed to be reformed and that the mythology of the "war on drugs" was nothing more than a fairy tale:
But this is only part of the problem. A 2006 ACLU report documented the difference in sentencing between the possession of crack and of cocaine:
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, passed during the media frenzy following the death of University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, established mandatory minimum sentences for possession of specific amounts of cocaine. However, it also established a 100-to-1 disparity between distribution of powder and crack cocaine. For example, distributing just five grams of crack carries a minimum five-year federal prison sentence, while distributing 500 grams of powder cocaine carries the same sentence. The discrepancy remains despite repeated recommendations by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to Congress to reconsider the penalties.
Because of its relative low cost, crack cocaine is more accessible to poor people, many of whom are African Americans. Conversely, powder cocaine is much more expensive and tends to be used by more affluent white Americans.
The report includes recent data that indicates that African Americans make up 15 percent of the country's drug users, yet they make up 37 percent of those arrested for drug violations, 59 percent of those convicted, and 74 percent of those sentenced to prison for a drug offense. More than 80 percent of the defendants sentenced for crack offenses are African American, despite the fact that more than 66 percent of crack users are white or Hispanic.
In the past, Obama has spoken out against the continuation of policies like this one. From a 2007 interview:
Asked if he would eliminate discriminatory laws that punish crack cocaine possession so heavily that it would take 100 times more in powder cocaine for the same sentence, Obama started off by saying the law was a mistake. He talked about his record in the Illinois Senate.
"I want to point out that I fought provisions like this and in many cases voted against provisions like this, knowing the way they could be exploited politically," Obama told the Trotter Group of African-American newspaper columnists last week after addressing the National Association of Black Journalists. "I thought it was the right thing to do. Even though the politics of it was tough back in the '90s, as a state legislator I took some tough votes to make sure we didn't see the perpetration of these kinds of unjust laws."...
...He said that if he were to become president, he would support a commission to issue a report "that allows me to say that based on the expert evidence, this is not working and it's unfair and unjust. Then I would move legislation forward."
In that same interview, Obama linked drug problems to larger issues of economic and opportunity disparities in America:
Obama asked if he could make a "broader" point. "Even if we fix this, if it was a 1-to-1 ratio, it's still a problem that folks are selling crack. It's still a problem that our young men are in a situation where they believe the only recourse for them is the drug trade. So there is a balancing act that has to be done in terms of, do we want to spend all our political capital on a very difficult issue that doesn't get at some of the underlying issues; whether we want to spend more of that political capital getting early childhood education in place, getting after-school programs in place, getting summer school programs in place."
Addressing the economic and social situations which encourage people to use and sell drugs is critical. But it is also important to take advantage of changing public attitudes in order to do away with hypocritical drug policies that undermine public faith in an impartial justice system and disproportionately harm segments of society which are already teetering on the brink of collapse. Public apologies like those issued today by Phelps ring hollow because he will not be persecuted for his actions by either a court of law or the court of public opinion. The fact the he feels he must apologize is simply an effort to pay homage to past American mores that no longer impact private behavior. But those mores still impact drug policies, policies that continue to hurt citizens to this very day. Some steps to mitigate the worst impacts of these broken laws, like those governing sentencing for crack/cocaine offenses have been taken in recent years. Let's hope that President Obama, who saw the impact of bad drug laws first-hand in Chicago, will continue these reforms.

Yo, Meathead!

Okay, it’s been two weeks, so I guess I’m ready to talk about the Giants’ big failure against the Eagles two Sundays ago. Of course, it almost seems passé, now that the Eagles lost to the Cardinals—I know, can you believe it? The Cardinals!—last week.

There are a lot of people who think that the Giants’ season ended the night that Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg. Maybe there’s something to that, but I don’t buy it completely. The Giants have plenty of talent, and they have a deep receiving corps, even though none of them has the height or the hands of Burress. I suppose it can’t be argued that Eli Manning only had one touchdown pass to a receiver after Burress was suspended for the remainder of the season. Likewise, all of the team’s offensive numbers went down starting with the first game after the shooting. But even though the G-men lost three of their last four regular season games, it seemed that they could come together when it really counted, as they did against the Panthers in Week 16, when the game was for the top seed in the NFC playoffs.

There were a few factors besides Burress’s absence that led the Giants to their embarrassing loss against Philadelphia. Two things that contributed went hand in hand: the fact that Manning was having a bad game and missing his receivers, and the terrible play-calling by Kevin Gilbride, the offensive coordinator. Yes, Eli was throwing into swirling winds at Giants Stadium in January (even though that didn’t seem to stop Donovan McNabb from having a good game). Do I think that Eli should know at this point how to deal with the winds at the Meadowlands? Absolutely. I have no excuse for him except that he was having a bad game. I will still allow him a few stinkers, even though this came at the most inopportune time. However, even if Eli was not having a rotten day, why the heck did Gilbride choose to get away from the Giants’ bread and butter, the running game? Even when the G-men did run the ball, they gave it to Derrick Ward as often as to Brandon Jacobs. What was Gilbride thinking? Jacobs is needed to steamroll and soften other teams’ defenses before Ward should be put in the game. It was New York in January, for goodness sake! Did Gilbride really think any great Giants team got to be that way by throwing the ball in the frozen tundra that is Giants Stadium? Run the darned ball! I was watching the game at home by myself, and many was the time I muttered to myself, “Run it! Run the ball!” Coach Tom Coughlin shares as much blame as Gilbride. He should have seen what was happening and ordered Gilbride to call more running plays with Jacobs.

Another factor was the defense. What happened to Steve Spagnuolo’s aggressive, attacking scheme? Why was it that the Giants’ defensive line couldn’t sack McNabb once this entire season? The Giants’ defense had been stellar this year—fifth in the league in yards allowed, I believe. Yet they allowed the Eagles to drive down the field again and again. By the way, what did that have to do with Plaxico Burress?

Finally, as small a factor as it was, John Carney’s poor kicking must have demoralized the Giants not once, but twice. The guy had missed three field goals all season, and two were blocked. But he missed the final one of the regular season, which might have given the Giants a victory over Minnesota, and it seemed that it shook his confidence enough to keep him from making more than a single field goal out of three attempts in the playoffs. The Giants did lose by more than six points, but still…

So there it is. The Giants have the potential to be good for several years to come, but there sure are some ways they could strengthen the team for the 2009 season. First, they should hope that Gilbride leaves to be head coach of the Raiders. Then they can hire a better offensive coordinator. Gilbride did a good job in 2007, when Big Blue made their Super Bowl run, but after this year, it seems as if the game has passed him by. New defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan was the linebackers coach, and my gut feeling is that he will be fine keeping continuity with Spagnuolo’s system. Second, they need to find a tall, fast number-one receiver with good hands to replace Burress. True, GM Jerry Reese said, “Never say never,” when asked if Burress could return, but frankly, if Plax manages to avoid jail, I think the Giants organization has too much class to keep him, even if it gives them a better shot to get another ring. Third, find another linebacker or two to shore up that unit. Antonio Pierce may or may not have lost a step, but he sure wasn’t playing like himself by the end of the year. This was the weakest defensive unit on the Giants, and it could use some help.

As for you naysayers who got all up in arms at the thought of Eli getting a new, stupendously large contract—who needs you? You were probably all saying Eli was the toast of the town last year when he was Super Bowl MVP. Does he still have bad games? Yup. Is he as good as his brother? Probably not. But you can’t argue with the ring—it can never be said that Eli doesn’t have what it takes to win a championship. Heck, Trent Dilfer was a Super Bowl–winning QB, and Eli Manning is a heck of a lot better than him!

I’d also like to take a jab at the fans of my two other favorite teams—the Cowboys and the Eagles. (Note the heavy sarcasm.) To Dallas fans—yeah, I bet you thought you had it made when EVERYONE and their mother picked your team to win it all this year. To that (and to Jerry Jones) I say, “Ha, ha!” (Imagine Nelson from The Simpsons laughing.) It takes more than a few predictions to make a Super Bowl team, wouldn’t you say? How many of the so-called NFL prognosticators do you think picked Arizona to go to the Big Dance this year? To Philly fans—yeah, yeah, you beat the Giants. Yeah, yeah, you beat them twice at Giants Stadium this year. Yeah, yeah, you sure acted like your team was hot stuff going into the NFC Championship Game before the Cardinals—the CARDINALS—made them look like chop suey. All I can say is this: at least the Giants won the Super Bowl last year in one of the greatest upsets of all time. At least the Giants have won three Super Bowls. How many Super Bowls have the Eagles won? (Hint: 0.)

For the upcoming Super Bowl, I will root for the Cardinals. Not that I have anything against Pittsburgh, and I won’t be upset if the Steelers win, but come on—the Cardinals haven’t won a championship in 61 years. They’ve been through three cities in that time. The only team that’s been around that long without a championship is the Cubs, and they’re going on 101 years and counting. Also, with Bruce Springsteen as the halftime show, the Super Bowl this year can’t possibly be as good as the last couple. I like the Boss’s politics, but his music? As my grandfather used to say, “Feh!”

If I don’t get a chance to write again before the game (I have to travel to New York this week on business), everyone enjoy!

And go, Cards!

Yo, Meathead!

Did everyone have a good Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s? Hope you were all safe out there on New Year’s Eve!

So now it’s time for the good stuff!

I know, I know, all you fans of NFL teams that didn’t get a first-round bye have already seen some of the good stuff—at least, the fans of the Eagles, Cardinals, Ravens, and Chargers have. Fans of the Vikings, Falcons, Dolphins, and Colts will have to wait another year!

A couple of things about that opening round of playoffs before I get into my favorite football subject. First, I am very surprised that the Chargers and Cardinals won. The Cardinals haven’t won squat in so long, I thought for sure that Atlanta would handle them, rookie quarterback or no. As for the Chargers, yeah, sure, they have Philip Rivers, who had the highest QB rating in the league this year. But the Colts have Peyton Manning! What the hey? Maybe spineless Norv Turner actually deserves more credit than I ever wanted to give him. Naaah. I don’t give them much of a chance against the Steelers this weekend. Likewise, I think the Panthers will hand it to Arizona with ease.

Yes, I think the games to watch this weekend, if you’re looking for excitement, will be Ravens–Titans and Eagles–Giants. Not that these games will necessarily be high-scoring, shootout types of affairs. Quite the contrary—I think they will both be big-time defensive battles that will be decided by a touchdown or less. But that, to me, is what football is all about: two power teams slugging it out in the ground game while their defenses try to make points a rare commodity. Sacks, fumbles, interceptions—and a grind-it-out running game on offense to control the clock and the tempo and keep the other guys’ defense on the field as long as possible.

I don’t know if I could call that AFC game—I guess in a pinch I’d pick Tennessee to beat Baltimore, although the Ravens’ defense once again looks almost impregnable as it did eight years ago when they won the Big Dance. Maybe it’s not quite that good, but it sure did put a hurting on Chad Pennington and the Fish last weekend.

As for the NFC game—ah, yes, NOW it’s time to talk about the Giants. True, they lost three of their last four, one loss of which was to Philadelphia, but consider: Two of those losses were division games in which Big Blue was not fully healthy. In the last loss, to Minnesota, the Giants didn’t play their starters the whole game and still ended up losing by only a point. Now the injured players have had a chance to rest at least two weeks—some of them three. The latest report has the G-men at just about full strength, which hasn’t been the case for weeks. The Giants got banged up playing one of the toughest schedules in NFL history—they had the earliest possible bye week and then four weeks later began a stretch of ten games in a row against teams with winning records, six of which made the playoffs. Yow! But when healthy, the Giants did beat the Eagles once, in addition to beating the Steelers, Ravens, and Panthers. I think this game will be close, as division games often are, but I think Big Blue will pull it off on their way to their second straight Super Bowl appearance. Time will tell.

SEASONINGS: Good for Ed’s cousin, Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, for calling out the Yankees on their obscene spending spree this offseason. Of course, Yankees flunky Randy Levine shares my last name, but he’s no relation of mine. Thank goodness, because I’d be ashamed to share genes with him after he called Attanasio’s comments sour grapes—at the news conference announcing Mark Teixeira’s new $180 million dollar contract with New York. Can’t really say much more about that—it speaks for itself, I think.

And I see Jason Giambi is back with the A’s after defecting to New York eight years ago. Gosh, A’s management keeps making it harder and harder for me to root for them. I hope “the Giambino” gets roundly booed at his first home game and every game thereafter until he gets benched for his poor play, as he inevitably will. Who’s left from Giambi’s last term with the A’s? Only Eric Chavez, who has played only 113 games the last two seasons due to injury. He and Giambi should feel right at home with one another.

Maybe I don’t know all the facts, but I think less of John Smoltz for defecting to the Red Sox for an extra $3 million. I mean, the guy played in Atlanta for 21 years! He made millions already! Isn’t there something to be said for loyalty, both by the club and the player, after that long? Yes, maybe Atlanta should have offered him more, even though he’s coming off of major arm surgery, but even so, you’d think the two would be able to come to some sort of agreement after 21 years of service! Did Smoltz really need the money that badly? Sheesh!

Yo, Meathead!

It sure has been a busy holiday season! Hope everyone out there is having good holidays!

So here we are right before the last week of the NFL regular season. Before their stunning overtime win against Carolina yesterday, the Giants had dropped two straight games to division rivals, and both offense and defense looked punchless against the Eagles and Cowboys. Yes, the whole Plaxico Burress situation brought Big Blue’s confidence and offensive ability down a notch, but I think too many people discount the injuries to the team that have held them in check a little for the last couple of games. Regarding the defensive line—yes, Matthias Kiwanuka and Justin Tuck are great pass rushers, but in my opinion, the two defensive tackles, Fred Robbins and Barry Cofield do not get their due, and when Robbins was out two of the last three games with a shoulder injury, the defense definitely suffered.

But the injury that might have cost the Giants the most (and kept their attitude in check) was running back Brandon Jacobs. Without Jacobs or Burress against Dallas, the Cowboys defense took it to the Giants. This week, Jacobs’s return paved the way for 301 rushing yards—the most in 49 years for the Jints—215 by Derrick Ward. The fact is that in order for the Giants’ rushing attack to be at its best, they need the use of all three members of the “Earth, Wind, and Fire” backfield. Though Jacobs had only 80 yards compared to Ward, it is his presence that softens up the defense and lets Ward and Ahmad Bradshaw do their damage.

Now the Giants have the top seed in the NFC and home-field advantage throughout the postseason, and the Cowboys are barely clinging to playoff life after losing to Baltimore on Saturday. Even though the ’Boys have a chance, is there really anyone who thinks they can win the Super Bowl? After giving up two touchdown runs of 77 or more yards in the final 3:50 of the game against the Ravens? I think not! Even though Dallas beat the Giants last week, I’d bet the Jints could handle them easily in the cold at Giants Stadium if the two teams actually met up in the postseason.

The G-men just need to stick to the ground game in the cold weather and let Eli Manning carry them when he has to, and they should be ready to make another run. Also, the defeat of Carolina may play on the Panthers’ minds if they meet the Giants in the playoffs. Of course, anything can happen on any given Sunday (or Saturday), so you never know what could happen, but I feel pretty confident that the Giants will be right there in the conference game, challenging to make their second straight appearance in the Big Dance.

SEASONINGS: I just have to comment on the Mets’ hot-stove league signings of J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez. After all the Mets’ meltdowns in the late innings last year, these two guys could go a long way toward finishing games for the bullpen. But I read that K-Rod is actually looking forward to the boos that might find him at Citi Field if he falters, and he plans on using them for any needed motivation. Yeah, right! I’ve seen better men than K-Rod felled by the fans’ antagonism at Shea—it will be no different at the new park. And while I hate the fact that Mets fans boo their own players during tough times, I can’t see that playing in a new park will keep fans quiet if the Mets stumble. Good luck, J.J. and Frankie!

Something else I just have to mention—does anyone remember how I bashed the Chargers for signing Norv Turner as coach and the Cowboys for signing Wade Phillips in the same capacity? These two teams are coming up far short of expectations this year, and both coaches are rumored to have the ax hanging overhead. No surprise! Turner has taken his very talented team nowhere—he does not have the strength of personality to ever succeed as anything more than an offensive coordinator—and no way can Cream-Puff Phillips handle all the massive egos the Cowboys have gathered together and called a team. Could anyone have seen it coming? “Yo, Meathead!”

Lastly, in response to Ed’s Super Bowl prediction, below, what else can I say after singing the Giants’ praises all season? Even though I am always reluctant to make predictions, Ed, ya talked me into it! I think it will be Giants–Steelers, and of course, Big Blue will win!

My Super Bowl Predictions

In this year's Super Bowl, I like Carolina in the NFC and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC. I know they both lost this past weekend, but I just feel like they are the two teams that stand out to me right now. The NY Giants, the Patriots and the Titans will all be tough, but in the end, I believe it will be a Panther-Steelers Super Bowl!

What do you think, Meat?

Yo, Meathead!

Holy guacamole! Is there a bigger jerk in the NFL right now than Plaxico Burress? From Super Bowl to Super Bust!

Good ol’ Plax found a way to get me off writing article after article praising the New York Giants. Now I can rip him up.

I mean, what was this guy thinking? It’s pretty hard to fall so low from heights so high after catching the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl last year. How stupid do you have to be, not only to break New York gun laws by bringing a loaded but unregistered firearm into a crowded nightclub, but then to shoot yourself in the leg with the gun? Even if the weapon was registered, Burress has shown the world that he’s way too dumb to own a gun. Why wasn’t the weapon’s safety on? He could be considered a worse ass than Terrell Owens or Chad Ocho Cinco (Johnson), because at least those two prima donnas never brought guns into their selfish little worlds (that we know of).

Now Burress has possibly cost himself as much as $27 million, which he could lose out on if the Giants franchise decides it’s had enough. While General Manager Jerry Reese left the door slightly open on a Plaxico redux, my guess here is that Burress will not play another down in a Giants uniform, even if he avoids jail time. The Giants were probably just covering themselves in case the players’ union starts crying that the team terminated him unfairly, or without due process, or whatever sad excuse they can come up with. But this franchise has a history of class, and I’d bet that this new generation of Giants owners will do the right thing, just like their dads. Sayonara, Plax! Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out!

I’ve seen a lot of sportswriters this past week say the Giants are toast, and with all the distractions, including linebacker Antonio Pierce’s involvement the night of the shooting, there’s no way they can repeat as champions. I say, let’s see what happens against the Eagles on Sunday. If the Giants can win decisively, or even come back from a deficit in the final minutes (and clinch the NFC East and a playoff spot in the process), I’d say the team is going to be fine, and they will be just as dangerous come the playoffs. If the Giants falter this week, then anything goes—they could still win it all, or another team (Dallas, Pittsburgh, Tennessee) could find a way to halt the juggernaut. Let’s face it—Big Blue has never made the playoffs the year after a Super Bowl appearance, so just doing that would be a victory of a sort for the franchise. But I doubt highly that staff, players, and fans would be too satisfied with a one-and done-performance, or even a loss in the NFC Championship Game. With an 11–1 record at this point, I think anything less than a Super Bowl appearance would be considered something of a flop.

As for Burress, the question now is whether or not he goes to prison, and if so, will it end a promising career far short of where it could have gone? Is Plaxico Burress done in the NFL, or will he get another shot—this year, or some other time, down the line?