Plaxico Burress caught the pass that won the Giants the 2007 Super Bowl. Nine months later, he caught a bullet in the leg. He’d been carrying a firearm in a New York nightclub, tucked into his pants with no holster. The weapon dropped down his pants leg, and when he tried to catch it, he depressed the trigger.
He was later arrested and served two years in prison for illegally carrying a firearm. Now he’s out, and he’s working for the Brady Campaign. According to their press release,
[H]is direct, and painful, experience with a gun in a nightclub in 2008 had taught him a lot of lessons. It had taught him, ultimately, that guns make everything worse.
Of course, professional football players are experts on gun safety, just like they’re experts on the humane treatment of animals.
Hoping to slow their decline into utter irrelevancy, the Brady Campaign will grab at whatever straw they can. Adding a celebrity like Burress to the roster doesn’t really help, though. It would be one thing if he was the victim of an act of violence, but Burress is an idiot who shot himself in the leg. He’s not a tragic example; he’s a buffoon and a laughingstock.
Hey, whatever works, guys.