Plaxico Burress; A Life Lesson For Us All

It’s been 9 short months since a Saturday night in November, when Plaxico Burress made a fateful decision to enter a New York city night club with a loaded gun in his pocket.

The former Super Bowl hero will now spend 20 months in a federal prison.

We’ll never understand why Burress decided to carry that gun, I doubt he could explain why he did it.

Upon hearing the news that Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg, my first thought was ‘Thank god he only shot himself.” At least he did not shoot someone’s husband, daughter, or father.

No, the bullet found one of Plaxico’s mighty legs. And just like the bullet that travelled in one side and out the other, so must be the thoughts now travelling through his head.

I like to think that he’s desperately trying to find some rationale for why he felt he needed to carry a loaded gun that night in New York. Anything that could provide solace, something which he could cling to, as he prepares to have those prison doors slam behind him.

He won’t find it.

Plaxico Burress represents the type of self destruction that exists in all of us. Each one of us, regardless of our place in society, or our amount of wealth and prosperity, is just one horrible decision away from losing it all.

 Burress was a Super Bowl hero. He caught the game winning touchdown in North America’s biggest championship, the winning score in the Giant’s monumental upset of the undefeated New England Patriots.

 But now, he’s just a 32 year old man off to prison.

That’s a tough lesson for a man blessed with extraordinary physical gifts, who had everything one man could ever want.

May we all be fortunate to live out the remainder of our days free of such a costly and unnecessary lack of judgement.