Plaxico Burress is not a clueless slab of concrete. Nor are the other athletes who land on the evening news, the crowd around them no longer teammates and adoring fans, but police officers and federal marshals.
One moment, we see them holding a trophy. The next, led away in handcuffs. Somewhere in between, on the sorry trip from uniform number to court case number, they had to make a judgment on how to behave, and a decision on how to live.
You wonder what happened then.
These are men who would not be where they are without seeing the big picture, at least at some stage in their lives. They have had to plan ahead. They have had to go through the process of learning, and then using what they have learned to get the desired result – even if all we are talking about is last week's game plan.
Burress has been a successful NFL receiver and a Super Bowl champion. Not many of those around. He had to have some vision for each Sunday.
Why then, if the charges are true, did he come up so blind when it really counted?
If a man can anticipate a two-deep zone and how to get open, shouldn't he at least be able to anticipate what might happen if he takes a loaded gun into a nightclub in Manhattan?
Ah, but there's the word that so often accompanies the downfall of a star. Why?
Often they are savvy men, accomplished men, when a championship is on the line. You wonder how they turn so dense when it is their careers and reputations.
If the allegations are true, at some point last Friday night, Plaxico Burress had to make the decision to carry a pistol into a club. It was not something he forgot he had in his pocket. A .40-caliber Glock pistol is not a set of car keys.
Did he not understand the gun laws of New York City? No excuse. You carry a weapon, you should know.
Did he feel unsafe, in an age when healthy athletes make tempting targets? If so, find another club.
You wonder if for even the slightest instant he looked into the future and considered where his actions might lead, the same way he would look into the eyes of a cornerback and consider his next move.
Too often in these stories, that is the moment when everything good fails – any past advice, any accrued wisdom.
You wonder what it is that takes over. Is the sense of invulnerability that strong among athletes, as dangerous as it is faulty? Or does the hero worship system we have installed in sport – with adulation and favors and money, and looking the other way if needed — lay the trap?
At some point in his life, a proficient athlete has had to know a little about accountability. You wonder where it goes.
So now the legal system intersects with the sports page again, and all this is starting to look familiar. The lawyer says his client is misunderstood. The team says it will go on. The police say they have a case. The league will investigate.
And the public? Some Giants patrons would consider all debts repaid with a couple of touchdowns against the Eagles. Not that he will get the chance.
But in troubled times, the tolerance of even ardent fans – willing to forgive and forget, if victories are plentiful – is not bottomless.
So many out there have lost jobs, lost homes, lost retirements. So many fear the future. Probably not a lot of patience, if a man blessed with a $35 million contract can't even follow the gun laws, and shoots himself in the thigh.
His big Super Bowl catch is suddenly a long time ago. Now we wait to see if Plaxico Burress deserves to be in another club – with those who labored years for success and then threw it away.
They knew all about crunch time. They just never understood when it truly came.
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