Former NFL star Plaxico Burress has brutally compared playing for the New York Jets to serving time in jail.
The former wide receiver spent 12 seasons in the NFL after being selected with the No. 8 overall pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2000 NFL Draft.
He also spent time with the Giants during his career, helping them win the Super Bowl in 2008. Burress famously caught the game-winning touchdown against Tom Brady and Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots in Arizona.
However, just nine months after that seismic achievement, he landed himself in hot water when he accidentally shot himself in the leg with an unlicensed firearm while trying to get into a nightclub in New York City.
The resulting court case made national headlines, with Burress eventually pleading guilty to attempted weapon possession in August 2009 and spending 20 months in jail. He had been released by the Giants at the end of the 2009 season.
In a recent appearance on ‘The Joint Venture Show’ with Lil Wayne and Craig Carton, Burress was asked whether playing for the Jets or going to prison was worse.
Plaxico Burress has brutally compared playing for the New York Jets to serving time in jail
Burress spent 20 months in jail after accidentally shooting himself in the leg in New York
He played one season for the Jets after his release but failed to make a lasting impression
‘They’re both kind of similar because when I walked into prison my first day, I was like, “Damn, man, you are a f***ing loser,’ Burress said.
‘And I had the same damn feeling every day I walked through the door with the Jets. I was like, “Damn I hope we can win this weekend.” Loser.’
After getting out of jail he played a single campaign with the Jets, appearing in 16 games but starting just three, before playing four times for the Steelers in 2012.
Burress has continued to encounter legal and financial difficulties in the 14 years that have followed his NFL retirement.
In 2010 he received a foreclosure notice on a mansion he purchased in Florida for almost $4million with wife Tiffany in 2005, with the home reportedly sold for half that price in a short sale in 2014.
A year before that sale, the ex-NFL champion sold his Virginia Beach pad for $480,000 before it was scheduled to go to auction under court order, which settled liens placed on it stemming from a $159,000 debt he owed a woman.
The woman in question had claimed she suffered neck and back injuries after he rear-ended her car in 2008.
Burress was also charged with cutting a bad check or electronic funds transfer in 2015 to stiff New Jersey authorities out of $46,000 worth of taxes on his $1m income, before he sealed a plea deal for a tax evasion charge – earning him a sentence of five years’ probation and $56,000 restitution.
Over the past eight years, he has also been accused of not paying the mortgage on the New Jersey home he bought for $1.5m back in 2005, with the banks subsequently issuing a foreclosure on the property in 2018, while a country club in the area secured a judgement in 2019 for his failure to settle a $3,100 tab.
