Until now, we have had to get by with news reports about Plaxico Burress’ notorious itchy trigger finger. But that’s why we should all be thankful for the guys at Flash Sports Tonight. And to show our appreciation (since, as you can see below, they helped to promote us), FST has been chosen for the Thursday LOTD.

Season 2 of the Greatest Animated Sports Cartoon in the History of Mankind kicked off earlier this week with FST field reporter Vinny Tresselini uncovering video of Plaxico Burress shooting himself — along with the untold story of how the shooting happened. (Hint: it involved Tiki Barber)

Enjoy:

(And if for some reason the video isn’t displaying, head on over to Flash Sports Tonight and watch it there.)

According to Tresselini, the Giants have declined comment on his breaking story and the video of Plaxico Burress shooting himself. They did however release a one line statement:

We wish Plaxico a full and speedy recovery from his leg injury — in another city — and are only sad that he did not have better aim in Tiki’s direction.

So there you have it. No word from Vinny yet on whether or not he has uncovered video of the story that broke earlier today about the shooting that Pacman Jones apparently arranged while he was still with Tennessee. But, as we learned from Season One of FST, it’s probably only a matter of time.

Other links as we span the blogosphere:

How did Dick Vitale do as an NBA announcer? – (Awful Announcing)

Got your bets in for the BCS Title Game and Divisional Round Playoff games? - (Cleveland Frowns)

Mangini is the new coach; what else is up with the Browns? – (Dawg Pound Daily)

Love for Rodney Stuckey – (Hardcore Detroit Fan)

DJ Augustin is not impressed by the Boston Celtics – (Josh Q. Public)

Purdue Personals – (Kornheiser’s Cartel)

Baltimore adds the next “great” Japanese pitcher – (Mr. Irrelevant)

A frustrating loss in Happy Valley for Purdue – (Off the Tracks)

Knowshon Moreno and his ridiculous athletic ability going to the NFL – (Hugging Harold Reynolds)

Utah’s proposed lawsuit against the BCS won’t work – (SFTSports)

Why Jim Thome have to go and screw things up by staying healthy? – (Sox Machine)

Debate: Did the Browns make the right call with Mangini? – (Sports2Debate)

Take a quick break and look at some hot chicks – (The World According to Moon Dog)

What is your best old school NFL jersey? – (Tirico Suave)

Is Chudz on his way out as Browns OC? – (Waiting For Next Year)

Now feel free to scroll back up and watch the video of Plaxico Burress shooting himself, or head over to FST and watch their other videos from Season One. Seriously…good stuff.

Here is a sample of what Joey Porter said, per ESPN:

“Plaxico is like a brother to me. I take it real personal how he’s being treated,” Porter said. “Everybody has their mistakes, but that’s exactly what they are … Until you’ve been in that situation, when you’ve been robbed at gunpoint or you’ve had a gun waved in your face or had your house broken into before or been carjacked, you really don’t know what it’s like.”

I am not writing this post to judge the comments of Joey Porter. Rather, I am using his comment as a segue into a discussion of my inundation with guns this morning; and on this day, Joey Porter’s comments are a primary reason why.

I have a half hour drive to work every morning. During my drive, I typically toggle back and forth between Dallas’ legendary 1310 The Ticket and 103.3 ESPN Radio, during The Ticket’s commercial breaks. Here is a timeline of my morning drive today:

1. It started by listening to Mike and Mike in the Morning, who were discussing Joey Porter’s comments and Jeremy Green’s comment that 75% of NFL players carry guns. As per usual, Lady Bird Greenberg said nothing of substance, while Mike Golic poorly argued both sides of the issue at the same time. Just another day at the office for those two.
2. I then thought to myself that listening to Mike and Mike in the Morning is like listening to a plain glazed donut and an eclair argue over who has more sprinkles. (Hint: Neither one does.)
3. As his teaser for the next segment, Lady Bird Greenberg (doesn’t that first name just fit perfectly?) implored listeners to stick around to hear “fascinating” comments from Bob Knight.
4. I promptly switched over to The Ticket, where they are doing a little one-day experiment where they switch up all of their radio hosts to different time slots with different people. I heard Norm Hitzges’ voice and immediately felt clouds of darkness beginning to form over my morning.
5. Foolishly, I flipped back to Mike and Lady Bird in the Morning because I love Bob Knight and wanted to hear his purportedly fascinating comments about the Plaxico Burress situation. Before discussing Knight, they briefly touched on C.C. Sabathia signing with the New York Yankees, and played one of their stupid parody songs from last year about C.C. Sabathia being a “hired gun” for the Brewers.
6. And what about Knight’s comment? It was something to the effect of, “I don’t understand why an athlete would need to carry a gun, unless he’s out hunting pheasants.” WOW! STOP THE PRESSES! What brilliance! What insight! Bob Knight is only the one millionth old white guy over the past two weeks to say something similar. But that part about the pheasants — wow! He really broke new ground there. I understand the whole situation better now. (This is not meant as knock on Coach Knight, but on Mike Greenberg, for being a shlong and over-promoting Knight’s comments.)
7. I then briefly searched around in my car for a gun to shoot myself for listening to Mike and Lady Bird, and for believing Lady Bird’s teaser. When their conversation then turned to Hannah Montana, I strongly lamented the absence of a gun in my car and considered just driving off the road. I decided to switch back to The Ticket instead.
8. Norm Hitzges and whoever else was on with him this morning were talking about Tony Romo and whether his “gunslinger” mentality was helping or hurting the Cowboys.

My point in giving you this rambling diary of my morning drive is to illustrate how much guns and gun-related or gun-inspired topics and euphemisms are permeating sports news these days. The only thing that Mike and Lady Bird said that had any relevance whatsoever is that Roger Goodell has to be frustrated that with such a great NFL season happening on the field, so much of the discussion is themed around Plaxico Burress and issues relating to guns.

With this in mind, I decided to do some investigative (fake) journalism this morning and reach out to important figures in the sports world and get their thoughts on the gun issue. After drowning in gun-speak this morning on the radio, what I “discovered” was hardly surprising (or true):

The first person I contacted was Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler, who loves him some him, and is rumored to have proposed marriage to his right arm recently. When I asked him about Jeremy Green’s estimation that 75% of NFL players carry guns, Cutler replied, “I have no idea, but I know I carry one. It’s a combination of a rifle and a shotgun. I call it: ‘my arm.’ And in most states you can’t even get a license to carry one so powerful. I usually bring it out on Sundays and it’s definitely more powerful than any of the guns anyone else in the NFL now or in the past has ever carried.”

I next spoke with Vishante Schiancoe of the Minnesota Vikings, who made some pretty interesting headlines this past weekend. Shiancoe says that he carries a gun, and that he doesn’t mind people seeing it. In fact, he’s so unabashed and proud of its size that he says he’d willingly flash it on live TV. “Why not?” said Shiancoe. “It ‘aint like I’m carrying around a Derringer.”

In related news, plenty of famous sports personalities do, in fact, carry concealed Derringers in their pants on a daily basis: Jay Marrioti, for example. Others, like Alex Rodriguez and Tony Romo, typically carry their shriveled Derringers during the playoffs or in other key games for “protection,” but seem to suffer adverse effects that hurt their teams.

Bob McKillop, head basketball coach at Davidson, says he has carried a gun into every basketball game his team has played the past two-plus seasons. It’s a Stephencurry .30, and while it only has range up to about 35 feet, it is deadly accurate. In fact, McKillop’s Stephencurry .30 can fire off rounds of 44 in a single 40-minute span before needing to be reloaded.

Another prominent sports personality, Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, also carries a gun with him everywhere he goes and typically shoots from the hip when using it, which can often get him into trouble. Case in point, his recent comments at MLB’s Winter Meetings in regards to the White Sox and Dodgers opening up a shared Spring Training Facility in Glendale, AZ. Guillen is quoted as saying:

“One thing is we will not be on a bus for 3 hours a day. It will be an honor to be in the same facility with Joe Torre. The only bad thing will be having my wife there every weekend.”

I followed up with Ozzie to get some clarification as to what he meant about it being a bad thing that his wife would be there, and Ozzie promptly pulled the trigger straight from his hip again and told me to “shut the f*$k up and go root for the Cubs.” When I explained that I was a die hard White Sox fan and hated both the Cubs and Jay Mariotti, he apologized and then laughed after making disparaging remarks about Jay Mariotti’s “tiny Derringer.”

So as you can see, guns are everywhere in sports — not just in the NFL. From “hired guns” to “gunslingers”, to phrases like “shooting a basketball” and “shotgun formation”, to athletes shooting their own legs, guns are as widely and varyingly intertwined into the lexicon of sports as a word like “balls” or the constant war metaphors that are always used by athletes, coaches, and announcers.

When viewed that way, I guess I shouldn’t be so disappointed or surprised at what I heard on the radio this morning. Joey Porter may be to blame for bringing guns back to the forefront of the sports news cycle and discussion today, but they are always there in the not-too-distant background in some form or another. The big problem is that unlike my fabricated attempts at irony and humor in this post, or the “innocent” gun-related euphemisms in sports talk that we simply take for granted and that have seemingly been around forever, guns are coming up in sports conversations more and more for real.

Players like Sean Taylor are being brutally murdered and athletes are feeling an increasing necessity to take the extra measure of protecting themselves with firearms. But ask the New York Giants if guns have positively or negatively impacted their franchise? Ask the Indiana Pacers the same thing. For a topic that has had such a seamless assimilation into the figurative world of sports talk and description, it has had a decidedly more invasive and negative impact on the actual players, teams, and games that create the need for such description.

What is troubling is that, if the recent Plaxico Burress and Marvin Harrison examples are any indication, it seems like the problem of athletes and guns will continue to get worse before it gets better. Unfortunately, that may mean many additional mornings like this one where innocent gun metaphors mix with the serious stories of athletes and guns in an overwhelming amalgamation of gun-dominated sports talk.

Most sports fans can handle the metaphors, and have for years. But if the trend of guns infiltrating sports in real and specific ways continues, I wonder how long will it be before sports fans say enough is enough. Or do we simply live in a culture of violent entertainment in which gun metaphors are more a manifestation of our willing acceptance than an example of our oblivious perpetuation? Based on the instinct I displayed in taking the initiative to write this post and exploit the current the Plaxico/gun issue by starting it off with humor and irony, it appears that, at least for me, the former is closer to the truth.

And now as I end this post, certainly wondering how it veered into the serious after starting out much more lighthearted, I can’t decide how I feel about that — the fact that I could be so flippant about an issue that, in reality, is pretty damn serious. We have always talked about guns figuratively in relation to sports, in innocently descriptive ways. Now guns are actually a topic that we talk about specifically in sports stories more and more, and with a decidedly negative connotation.

What I don’t know is whether it’s really worth worrying about. At the end of the day, I’m just a blogger trying to make sense of it all and find an angle to entertain my readers.

• But am I really just one more vehicle of sports talk, no matter how small or insignificant, driving the real-life transition from guns-as-metaphor to guns-as-reality in the sports world?
• Are the two topics mutually exclusive?
• Or am I searching for angle that just is not there?

I have no answers to those questions, or even an idea if there really are answers. I just figured I’d rifle them out in bullets in my ultimate quest as a blogger to shoot you straight about my immediate sports opinions.

Chad Johnson, Brandon Marshall, and Chris Henry, to name a few, have all been lightning rods for controversy this season for various locker room and off-field misdeeds.

But none of the afore mentioned wide receivers’ problems compare to those faced by two of the most prolific receivers of this decade: Plaxico Burress and Marvin Harrison.

By now, everyone knows about Plaxico Burress and his unfortunate shooting incident. The quick Cliff’s Notes version if you need a refresher:

Yesterday, Burress turned himself in to authorities after shooting himself in the leg while illegally carrying a loaded handgun. Two teammates (Antonio Pierce and Ahmad Bradshaw) were with him and allegedly helped Plaxico make it to a hospital, where a worker has been suspended for no reporting the gunshot wound. Today, the New York Giants announced that Plaxico Burress was being placed on the non-football injury list and would not be a part of the team for the remainder of the season.

There is more to the story than that, but you probably know it all already. (And if not, hop over to ProFootballTalk.com to learn all the details.)

The Giants decision to suspend Burress does not seem unreasonable at all to me. Plaxico was already suspended once this year for insubordination, and seems to become more of a headache with each passing year and with each contract extension he signs. This latest incident is just another in a long litany of incidents in which Plaxico’s conduct off the field has overshadowed his prodigious production on it.

What really hurt Plaxico Burress in this case is that the Giants have proven that they can overcome the loss of Tiki Barber…and Michael Strahan…and Osi Umenyiora…and Jeremy Shockey…and now Plaxico Burress. They have built a great team concept and probably did not even have to think twice about giving Plaxico the Keyshawn treatment and just telling him to go away.

But what I can’t stop wondering, and what I haven’t seen covered anywhere else, is why the Plaxico Burress story is such a huge deal while the Marvin Harrison shooting investigation in Philadelphia is barely a blip on the radar screen anymore.

I posted about the Marvin Harrison shooting investigation back in October, right after word came out that Marvin would be facing a civil trial for his alleged involvement in a shooting that took place in his hometown of Philadelphia. Criminal charges were never filed against Harrison, although the case was still considered “an open investigation” by the Assistant District Attorney as of October 8th. The Philly.com article linked in the last sentence is the most recent article I can find online about the Marvin Harrison shooting. The victim Dwight Dixon, who is also the plaintiff in the civil suit, was apparently scheduled to appear in court on November 17th to answer charges that he filed an erroneous police report. I could not find any word on what happened with with respect to that hearing, or if it even occurred. (If there have been any recent developments in this case, please post links in the comments. Google certainly was not bringing any up, and I haven’t heard anything about this case since October.)

Basically, there was a big hubbub early in 2008 when the story first broke on Harrison, and it gained traction again in October with word of the civil suit, but now all is quiet; and Marvin Harrison continues to suit up for the Indianapolis Colts. Luckily for Harrison, he only seems to cause trouble when he is back home in Philly. The shooting investigation story was a shock because everyone assumed Harrison was a great guy just because he is quiet and reserved. His disposition, it seems, and history of not causing locker room trouble, gives the Colts no reason to suspend him without proof or a conviction in the shooting case.

Is that right? Perhaps. A very good argument could be made that the Giants will in fact be better off without Plaxico and the circus of distractions that has followed him this season. The Colts have no such trouble with Harrison — only the problems of his declining skills contributing to their offense becoming something far less potent than the well-oiled machined we have become accustomed to. (When you can’t score a touchdown against the Browns, you have problems.)

But while we are busy throwing stones at Plaxico Burress for being an idiot, a scofflaw, and a miscreant for his decision to illegally carry a loaded handgun, let’s take a moment to remember that the accusations against Marvin Harrison are actually far more severe.

Plaxico Burress illegally possessed a loaded handgun, and shot himself in the leg. Certainly, he put others at risk by carrying the gun an allowing it to go off; but in reality, no physical harm was done to anyone else because of his misdeed.

In the Harrison case, these are facts alleged in the civil suit filed by Dwight Dixon (as reported by Philly.com):

* A shooting took place on April 29th after a fist fight broke out between Marvin Harrison and Dwight Dixon at a North Philadelphia auto repair shop owned by Harrison.

* Harrison and Dixon squabbled for two weeks before the shooting after they exchanged words in Playmakers, a bar on 28th Street near Cambridge that Harrison owns.

* Ballistics tests proved shell casings found at the shooting scene had been fired from Harrison’s gun, a Belgian-made FN5.7, law-enforcement sources said.

* Detectives found the firearm in Harrison’s garage on Thompson Street.

* Witnesses and Dixon separately identified Harrison as the shooter, the sources said.

The two biggest differences between the Harrison and Burress situations are, of course:

1. The act allegedly carried out by Harrison injured another person, not himself, as in the Burress case.
2. Harrison was never formally charged criminally. To date, as far as I know, he has only been charged in the civil suit by Dixon.

With the information available online, I find it very hard to believe that Marvin Harrison was not the one who pulled the trigger. At a minimum, someone else pulled the trigger on a gun owned (legally, I am assuming) by Harrison and injured another party. I remind you again that while illegally carrying a handgun is an egregious offense and should be punished, no one else was hurt because of Plaxico Burress. Burress has seriously hurt himself, and his team — but has caused no physical injury to another party. Marvin Harrison has not, ostensibly, hurt his team — but he was either explicitly or implicitly involved in injuring another person, and committing or being party to an act that could have potentially killed that person.

I’m not saying the Colts should suspend Marvin Harrison. I believe in the tenet of American jurisprudence that you are innocent until proven guilty. But as Mike Florio over at ProFootballTalk likes to say, that only works in the courtroom. In the court of public opinion, the assumption is that reasonable inferences and judgments will be made from available facts. Without more evidence to the contrary, it is quite hard for me to argue Harrison’s case. Marvin Harrison is not a locker room distraction, nor has been charged criminally, so the Colts have not punished him in any way.

The worst part of this whole case for Plaxico Burress is that the trouble he faces with the law is, at the end of the day, probably not going to be the most costly misdeed he committed. If Plaxico Burress had been a model teammate and was someone who had the support of his coach and his teammates, there is no way he would have been placed on the non-injury football list and banished from the Giants. It had become pretty apparent that the Giants were fed up with Plaxico, and the shooting incident gave them an easy excuse to just make him go away.

So as the story of Plaxico Burress continues to evolve, and bloggers and talk radio hosts across the country admonish him for breaking the law and being a bad citizen, remember: there is a wide receiver in Indianapolis who may have actually done something far worse; something that actually caused physical harm to someone other than himself.

Marvin Harrison is still playing, while Plaxico Burress is not; and it has far more to do with their conduct in the locker room than any significant difference in the degree of trouble they have gotten themselves into outside of it.

The lesson for all you aspiring, troublemaking wide receivers? Stay quiet and don’t cause waves in the locker room. Ignore this advice, and you will be jettisoned in your most dire hour of need. Pay heed to this advice, and you can pretty much get away with (attempted) murder. Just ask Plaxico Burress and Marvin Harrison.

Well, in the sports world, it’s usually used as just a figurative expression to express dismay at a person or team who is making self-defeating mistake after mistake. It’s not usually used literally.

Until now.

New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress has accidentally shot himself in the leg, according to Jay Glazer of Fox Sports. Here is an excerpt from the Glazer story:

The New York Giants wide receiver accidentally shot himself in the leg on Friday night, FOXSports.com has learned, not long after being ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Redskins with a hamstring injury

He spent the night in the hospital and the injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. The team is still trying to gather further information on the incident.

Needless to say, Plaxico Burress will miss this weekend’s game against the Washington Redskins. As stated by Glazer, Burress was already expected to miss the game so hopefully you made the proper adjustments to your fantasy football rosters.

My first inclination is to wonder why in the hell Plaxico Burress was walking around with a loaded gun. I have never understood the multitude of stories revolving around athletes, and football players in particular, getting in trouble with guns.

A post written last week about the beating of Donald Driver’s father by our very own Mark Laughlin made me rethink that a bit.

As a relatively spoiled kid who grew up in the suburbs of the Midwest and never once felt anything even resembling legitimate fear for my life or being, I have no frame of reference through which I can sympathize with someone who feels like they need to carry a gun. Mark’s article, as well as the ESPN stories he links to, is a real eye-opener regarding the reality that guys like Plaxico Burress live in — or at least think that they live in.

After college, I taught at an alternative school in Miami for about a half a year. That was another eye opener. These were all kids that were 16 years old or younger, and yet had been kicked out school for repeated offenses of grand theft auto, cocaine possession and use, and who repeatedly talked about guns and violence. Logically, I expected it going in — but it was still a shock once I got there.

What I learned is that a kid who grows up in a “normal” neighborhood in Bloomington, Indiana and a kid who grows up in Liberty City have drastically different views of reality and of what is “normal.”

I guess my point is that while Plaxico Burress has quite a checkered past, and can be judged harshly for a lot of his past words and actions, perhaps we should try to empathize in this case before casting negative aspersions on Burress for carrying a gun. I know the demographics of the people who read Midwest Sports Fans, and my general guess is that very few of you feel the need to carry a gun. I think we all wish that guys like Plaxico Burress did not feel the need to do so themselves, but I also can’t step into his shoes to know what it is like to feel like a target when you step out of your house — or in the tragic case of Sean Taylor, when you are in your house.

So no jokes and no disparaging comments from me on this one. Hopefully Plaxico Burress gets well soon, and hopefully there will come a day when athletes and celebrities like Plaxico Burress no longer feel the need to walk around with loaded guns.

Controversy in the Desert

The Cardinals have some incredible talent in the desert. Kurt Warner prayed that his team wouldn’t suck after he got Anquan Boldin rocked by the Jets and his prayers were answered by Steve Breaston. Breaston proved to fill the spot well and has averaged 98 YPG since week 4. Everyone saw his value hitting the floor, though, when Anquan Boldin bounced back. It didn’t. This week against the Panthers he had 91 yards and made it clear that he was still considered a key part of the offense. Not to mention, sticky contract negotiations with Boldin have Steve Breaston in the front office looking to ink a deal with the Cards.

Even with Anquan Boldin back, look for his value to even out slightly, and Steve Breaston’s to stay consistent. Remember the Cardinals throw the ball 60% of the time and Breaston is a primary kick returner, too. (Even with that, Tim Hightower has been the touchdown hawk for the Cards, so don’t count on blowup numbers for Breaston.)

There are some other key dudes back from injury that will change value around the league:

Brandon Stokely looks set to take the field in Denver after a concussion and has been seen as “the best slot receiver in the game” according to teammates. Trouble is with the return of Tony Scheffler and Eddie Royal as well, Stokely won’t get the lovely looks you want. He should be solid coming off the bye week, though, and look for Cutler to light it up against the Dolphins after an embarrassing loss to the Pats. (Jay Cutler has a huge ego…shhh, don’t tell him I told you, even though he wants you to know.)

Brandon Lloyd hit the practice field this week for the Bears. After a knee injury in the Philly game, Kyle Orton lost his most talented prospect. With Orton on the rise, the Bears coming off the bye and looking at Detroit at home, anyone on the Bears might be a good pickup. Keep your eye on his status though; if the knee goes south he will likely wait another week, then Rasheid Davis is probably your best bet in Chicago.

Joey Galloway, back in the Bay. This is great news for a Bucs’ team that has yet to establish an offensive identity. Galloway has not made much noise yet, because he is still splitting time with Antonio Bryant and even Ike Hillard. Joey Galloway is a beast though and has wheels, when his timing returns with Garcia he will find big gains for a Bucs’ team that really can’t run the ball consistently.

Sidney Rice looks like he will be back and healthy for the Vikings this week after struggling to get to 100% with a knee injury. He is the number two wide receiver in Minnesota and will be in the game this week against Houston.

Blow ups in Week 8

If someone in your league hasn’t found Donnie Avery, yet. Get him. I think that goes without saying. The Rams, it turns out, know how to play football and Donnie Avery is a beast.

Ted Ginn Jr. might be more likely to still be floating around in some leagues. The Ohio State alum proved that Chad Pennington has a target on the rise in Miami. He’s still a risk for a big start but will certainly start to show up more, so get him while you can.

Finally, David Garrard might have a target. Reggie Williams might be the go-to in Jacksonville after starting the season with an injury. Plus, Matt Jones can’t stay off the white horse and is looking at a suspension and looking skinnier, I might add.

Be wary of your “studs”

T.O. is losing value with every snap Brad Johnson takes and every move Jerry Jones makes. It’s like a bad Sting ballad. His fantasy stud status is real questionable with this team struggling like it has. Don’t be afraid to sit him if you have a viable option to back him up. On the road in New York won’t be a trip the boys want to remember on Monday morning.

Plaxico Burress is a virus, a virus that Tom Coughlin hates and Eli Manning can avoid. The Giants want to keep this guy as distant from the core of their team as possible and with other receiving options for Eli – Steve Smith, Domenik Hixon, Kevin Boss and even Derrick Ward – he can find someone else open to do the job who likes playing there. Plaxico Burress had 3 catches for 15 yards last week against the Steelers, and while he gets looks in the red zone, the Giants are good enough to stay away from him if they need to.

Questions? Thoughts? Leave them in the comment thread below and let’s discuss.

(For additional Fantasy Football Week 9 information, also check out the Week 9 Fire and Ice Fantasy Football Forum and the Week 9 Fantasy Football Sleeper Focus.)

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(This was post originally published before last week’s game.  Currently, as of 10/29, Plaxico Burress is on schedule to start against the Dallas Cowboys this weekend.  For fantasy analysis, check out Kaner’s Week 9 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Advice post.)

Jay Glazer has reported on the Fox NFL Pregame Show that New York Giants WR Plaxico Burress will not start today when the Giants take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Plaxico Burress reportedly missed several days of for his neck injury this week and the team appears poised to suspend Burress again if he “has another blowup.” He is still eligible to play in the Steelers game, as he apparently will not be deactivited; but if the Giants play well without him, Burress will not be inserted into the game.

In other injury news in the Giants-Steelers game, Steelers RB Willie Parker will be deactivated and not able to play.

This is obviously one of the games of the day in the NFL, as both teams enter play at 5-1 and leaders of their respective divisions. The game is in Pittsburgh, and will be televised on FOX this afternoon, beginning at 4:15. It is hard to pick against the Steelers at home in this one, but that is exactly what my pick is. The New York Giants have shown an uncanny ability in recent years to rise up and play well when they are having locker room distractions. Clearly, the Plaxico Burress mess from this week (he was also fined by the NFL for his actions in last week’s game, which included a verbal spat with coach Tom Coughlin) has been a major distraction.

However, even with one of their best players on the sidelines, I look for the Giants to come through with a hard-fought victory. The Pittsburgh Steelers have had a hard time protecting Ben Roethlisberger this year, and Big Ben is without one of his favorite targets in Santonio Holmes, who was suspended earlier this week for being caught with pot in his car. Additionally, the continued absence of Willie Parker obviously does not help the Steelers’ run game.

Look for a solid outing from Giants QB Eli Manning, in which he focuses on protecting the ball and moving the chains methodically, as well as ball-control effort from the three headed running back monster of Brandon Jacobs-Derrick Ward-Ahmad Bradshaw. The Steelers will have their hands full with Justin Tuck and the Giants’ front 7 and I think that Giants will be able to pull this one out by protecting a slim lead in the 4th quarter with their power running.

New York Giants 24 | Pittsburgh Steelers 21

[tags]pittsburgh steelers, new york giants, plaxico burress, nfl[/tags]