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Twenty-four hours later and Plaxico Burress is still dumb. Yesterday, we learned that he accidentally shot himself in the leg on Friday at a Manhattan nightclub. And while that’s almost impossible to fathom — billions of people manage to make it through life without ever putting a bullet into their thigh — the details of exactly how it happened are, well, stupefying.
The New York Daily News reports that Burress, “who was sporting flashy jewelry and carrying loads of cash,” was initially turned away from the LQ nightclub because he was packing heat, but explained that he needed the weapon for protection. Presumably because he was sporting flashy jewelry and carrying loads of cash.
[UPDATE: The Star-Ledger reports that Burress will surrender to authorities as soon as tomorrow. Hooray, U.S. justice system.]
And from there it just got worse:
The mercurial Giant was waved inside the crowded Latin-themed club on Lexington Ave. about midnight. He downed several drinks, making already jittery security guards more nervous about his weapon.
As Burress was being led into a VIP area, with a drink in his hand, the gun slipped down his pants leg. He reached for the weapon, but fumbled it and it went off, sources said. The bullet tore through Burress’ already injured right thigh, police said.
Oh, and did I mention that linebacker Antonio Pierce was with Burress when he fired a bullet into his leg? And after ripping the Giants wideout for carrying a gun, he tried to hide the weapon somewhere in New Jersey.
So, to recap: Burress could face felony charges for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, and Pierce now also has own legal troubles:
Burress is expected to be arrested on felony weapons charges in the coming days, while Pierce’s attorney was in frantic discussions with cops last night to stave off criminal charges, police sources said.
The Giants are 10-1 and have a huge division game against the Redskins today. Pierce will play while Burress, obviously, will not. In fact, his career in New York is probably over. And it only cost the organization $11 million for 13 weeks of mediocre football.
The fifth game of the World Series was suspended because of rain in the sixth inning Monday night with the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays tied 2-2 and the field already a sloppy, soggy mess.
My friends, there are some outrageous charges being levied right now. Tampa Bay and Philadelphia are bringing change we all can believe in to the World Series beginning on Wednesday night, and yet there are those among you who insist on going negative.
A day after the Rays punched their World Series ticket, manager Joe Maddon wasn’t ready to reveal his starting rotation Monday afternoon as his club prepares to face the Phillies in Game 1 on Wednesday night.
Many of the stars of this year’s Fall Classic can proudly proclaim, “I Love the ’80s,” because that’s the decade in which they were born.
Evidently when injuries rain around here, they absolutely pour.
Because when Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips was asked if he would have trouble coming up with his 45-man game-day roster, he sort of laughed and said, “I’m trying to get to 45. I’ve got about 42 healthy.”
Fittingly, Mr. Marlin will ultimately retire as a Marlin.According to a source, Jeff Conine, one of the most popular players in Florida history, will sign a one-day contract on March 28, and then retire as a member of the Marlins.
Nicknamed “Mr. Marlin,” the 41-year-old was a member of the team’s inaugural roster, and he enjoyed two stints with the organization. A versatile performer who mostly played first base and the outfield, he was a vital part of the franchise’s World Series titles in 1997 and 2003.
Conine, who resides year-round in South Florida in Weston, is scheduled to sign his one-day contract March 28, when the Marlins play an exhibition game against the Yankees at Dolphin Stadium.
The team also plans on honoring Conine during an on-field ceremony before their March 31 season opener against the Mets.
The Marlins, however, are not planning on retiring Conine’s number. He actually wore two. From 1993-97, he donned No. 19. When he returned in a trade from the Orioles on Aug. 31, 2003, he was given No. 18.
He remained with the Marlins through 2005.
Conine is currently training for an Ironman triathlon competition, which is consuming much of his time these days. The team is leaving open the option of bringing Conine back to the organization in an advisory capacity.
Conine enjoyed a 17-year big league career, breaking in with the Royals in 1990. He also played for the Marlins, Orioles, Phillies and Reds before he finished up last year with the Mets.
Respected for his hard-nosed style of play and his professionalism, Conine finished with a .285 career batting average. He added 214 home runs and 1,071 RBIs.
Conine ranks among the Marlins’ leaders in a number of categories. He is second in team history in games played (1,014), total hits (1,005), singles (688), RBIs (553) and total bases (1,579). He is the franchise leader in grand slams with six.
Kurt Busch helps team mate win
Another thriller, another heartbreak at the Daytona 500. For the second straight year, The Great American Race came down to the last lap.This time the drama rewarded Ryan Newman, who hadn’t won in 81 races over more than two years, and team owner Roger Penske, long the king at Indianapolis but never a winner at Daytona.
Newman waited while the big stars fell back one by one. Then, with only Tony Stewart ahead of him, Newman got a “push from heaven” from teammate Kurt Busch to take the lead on the final lap.”Kurt was the push from heaven that made it all happen,” Newman said. “Without a doubt, he could have easily gone three-wide and split us through the center and made one heck of a mess there. But he chose to be a teammate, and that was the most honorable thing that he could do.”Penske, the most successful owner in open-wheel history with 14 wins in the prestigious Indianapolis 500, now has a victory in NASCAR’s showcase event.
It only took him 24 years to get it.
And it came in the 50th running of the Daytona 500, in thrilling fashion, with a last-lap pass for the second consecutive year.
When the car owner finally made it to storied Victory Lane, he was met by Rick Hendrick, NASCAR’s most powerful owner.
“I talked to Rick earlier today, and I said, ‘You’ve been in the winner’s circle so many times, if we win will you give me your hat?’ He was the first one down here. So I thank him,” Penske said while wearing that very cap.
“We’ve been working here for many years. Certainly Kurt and the teamwork was just unbelievable. It’s a big day in our life and for our whole team.”
The Penske cars were quiet for 199 of the 200 laps, letting Joe Gibbs Racing stars Stewart and Kyle Busch race each other in a battle of Toyotas. With one lap to go, it appeared Stewart finally would get his first Daytona 500 win in his 10th try.
Running out front in the high line, he held off the two Penske cars as they circled the famed speedway. But as the Penske teammates closed in on him, Stewart didn’t feel safe running alone without any allies.
At the last second, he dropped low on the track to line up in front of Kyle Busch. The JGR teams had talked all week about the importance of teamwork, and Stewart thought he’d need Busch to make it to the checkered flag.
But the decision backfired in the blink of an eye.
Stewart couldn’t hook up with Kyle Busch fast enough, and the two Penske cars steamrolled past him on the top.
Newman pulled away for his first win since New Hampshire in September 2005, while Stewart had to settle for third.
“I don’t think there’s too many people that would take the white flag and like finishing third,” a dejected Stewart sighed. “We tried to win the Daytona 500. That’s all I can say. I just made the wrong decision on the backstretch.
“My intention was to get in front of Kyle and pull Kyle along with us. It’s hard to explain. It’s probably one of the most disappointing moments in my racing career.”
The disappointment was also evident on Greg Zipadelli, who starts his 10th season with Stewart in NASCAR’s longest active driver-crew chief pairing.
“We’ve worked all winter, we’ve worked the last 10 years, I’ve worked my whole life,” Zipadelli said. “It’s just the way that it is. There’s a lot of good people that haven’t won this race. I’m not going to get hung up on it. I’m going to work as hard as I can, and when it’s done, if we have our turn, we will.
“It won’t be because we didn’t work at it.”
The failure was a setback for Toyota, which seemed destined to win its first points race in NASCAR’s top series behind the strength of JGR.
“There’s no doubt the Gibbs guys feel dejected tonight,” Kurt Busch said.
The Gibbs organization joined Toyota this season, giving the manufacturer instant credibility after an embarrassing 2007 debut. Based on a strong month of testing and Denny Hamlin’s win in one of Thursday’s qualifying races, the JGR cars set the stage for an intense battle with powerful Hendrick Motorsports for the biggest prize in NASCAR.
But the Hendrick cars never challenged. Jeff Gordon dropped out with mechanical problems, Casey Mears and Jimmie Johnson both wrecked and, without any Hendrick help, Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t have the muscle to hold off the Gibbs entries.
It allowed Stewart and Kyle Busch to dominate the race, only to fade at the end. Busch, who led a race-high 86 laps, finished fourth, while Hamlin was 17th.
“Just frustrating to come home fourth, but that’s part of the Daytona 500,” said Kyle Busch, who joined Gibbs this season after Hendrick let him go to sign Earnhardt
“On the last lap, Stewart had a chance to go high to block (Newman) and (Busch), but they just had such a big run, I think he knew it was going to be a waste of time.”
The disappointment was a stark contrast to the euphoria in the Penske camp, which finished 1-2 in NASCAR’s Super Bowl and finally gave the storied car owner his first victory in a restrictor-plate race. Despite total domination in Indianapolis, Penske never could figure out how to win at Daytona.
He finally did it with teamwork – the same teamwork Gibbs and Hendrick preached all week – and a pair of drivers who share in each other’s success. It took years for Penske to build this and make his teams even. Once they were, Newman didn’t get along with Penske star Rusty Wallace.
But when Wallace retired after the 2005 season, Penske tabbed Busch, a former series champion, to replace him. He and Newman forged an instant working relationship that is finally paying dividends.
“I was very emotional crossing the line finishing second, because I know we did something very special for The Captain tonight,” said Busch, the runner-up, who was near tears when he visited Victory Lane.
The win was the first for Dodge at Daytona since Ward Burton’s win in 2001 and came hours after new chairman Bob Nardelli guaranteed the victory. Besides the win, Dodge drivers took six of the eight top spots.
Pledging his commitment to NASCAR despite sluggish car sales and just so-so on-track performance, Nardelli seemed certain he’d be in Victory Lane late Sunday night.
“A Dodge is going to win today. That’s why I’m here,” Nardelli boasted Sunday morning. “I told the pilots, ‘Make sure you get 12 hours of rest because we’re going to be here a while.’ I’m looking forward to being in that winner’s circle and having that champagne flowing.”
The victory earned Penske a $1 million bonus from Nardelli, who had promised the payout to any Dodge team that won the Daytona 500. Penske vowed to pump the money right back into his race team, and the car owner already was thinking about the rest of the season.
“Comparing it to the Indy 500, as Ryan knows, we’ve been open-wheel guys and coming down here has been tough,” Penske said. “This has got to go to the top of the charts here, this win. What I’m going to try to do this year is have them back-to-back, have one in May, too.
“That’s my real challenge right now.”
With the Super Bowl on the line, look who had the perfection thing down pat: Eli Manning and the road-conquering New York Giants.
And what a beauty their 11th straight road victory was, a 17-14 Super Bowl win Sunday that shattered the New England Patriots’ unblemished season.
In one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, Manning, New York’s unlikely Mr. Cool, hit Plaxico Burress on a 13-yard fade with 35 seconds left.
It was the Giants’ fourth consecutive postseason away win and the first time the Patriots tasted defeat in more than a year.”There’s something about this team,” Manning said. “The way we win games, and performed in the playoffs in the stretch. We had total confidence in ourselves.
The players believed in each other.”It was the most bitter of losses, too, because 12-point favorite New England (18-1) was one play from winning and getting the ultimate revenge for being penalized for illegally taping opponents’ defensive signals in the season opener against the New York Jets.
“I don’t rank them,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “It’s disappointing.”The Giants had the perfect answer for the suddenly imperfect Patriots: a big, bad defense and the improbable comeback led by Manning.
Yes, Eli Manning, who outplayed league MVP Tom Brady and furthered the family legacy one year after older brother Peyton led Indianapolis to the title.”I talked to Peyton and he said, `Go in there, have some fun, you can do it.”‘It was how Eli and the Giants did it.
